Open Eyes
by ThePadhog43
Summary: A waterbender student at Republic City University, Shinju is miserable in the city and being on the opposite side of the continent from home. She's tired of the Equalist supporting students and isn't afraid to stand up for what she is proud of.
1. As Long As There Are Mountains

Chapter 1-

She had always loved riding the locomotive train before and traveling to the places it would take her. But those journeys lasted only a couple of weeks at most and were usually family trips to the coast for summer vacations.

Packing this morning was the hardest and most dreadful experience Shinju had ever had yet in her life. She did not want to leave her hometown of Anshon, a strong, close knit community located in the rolling hills and green mountain valleys of the south central Earth Kingdom. She did not want to give up the beautiful nature she called home to go live in a stuffy city composed of nothing but factories and skyscrapers. But she also did not wish to disappoint her parents who had given her so much before to get her to this point. She always loved them and gave them all her respect and she wasn't going to break that record today by not going through with the plans they had already agreed on.

She also felt the pressure to live up to the legacy of her older sister, Intan. Shinju looked up to her with great admiration her whole life, but there was always a hint of jealousy as well. She excelled in the local school like her sister, but it seemed like because Intan did it first, she was the prizewinner and her unbeatable earthbending skills didn't hurt either. All of the other kids at school bullied Shinju for being a waterbender and excluded her. Because of this she liked to keep to herself most of the time at school, but at home she was extremely close to her younger brother Shai. He wasn't a bender at all which made him pretty sociable at school compared to Shinju, but nowhere near as popular as Intan. Although the rep of being Intan's brother didn't hurt either. But at home, the story was different.

Their father, Babur, was a very well respected earthbender in the farming village, but everyone was shocked and didn't understand why he decided to marry a savage woman from the Foggy Swamp Water Tribe, a waterbender named Miia. The family was the first interbender family of Anshon. As the rest of the world advanced with technology, the Foggy Swamp Tribe decided to preserve their traditional way of life at their home in the swamp and refused any proposal for development. When Miia was a teenager, she decided she wanted to be a part of this new world and left the Foggy Swamp Tribe reservation and also left all her friends and family behind. She never saw them again and Shinju and her siblings never met their grandparents or extended family from their mother's side.

Although she didn't want to be a part of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, Miia was still very proud to be a waterbender and always dreamed of mastering the style of either the Northern or Southern Tribe. But in her travels about the Earth Kingdom, searching for somewhere to go, she met Babur in Anshon and settled down to marry him and started a family. Miia taught Shinju everything she knew about waterbending from the Foggy Swamp Tribe, including the skill to bend the water within plant life, but that wasn't going to do her much good in the city now would it? Shinju wanted to be more than a novice waterbender and master her element in either the Northern or Southern Tribe like her mother always dreamed of, but her father insisted she focus on her studies because he could tell that the age of agriculture was vastly shrinking due to industrialization. He wanted to provide his children with an education that could get them a career to be successful in this new society taking form where he knew the family farm, as successful as it was and made the family quite wealthy in Anshon, would struggle to survive when he was gone.

Along with her academics, Babur valued Intan's earthbending just as strongly and because they were in the heart of the Earth Kingdom, he made sure to get his eldest daughter the best master in the area money could buy. While he was also proud of his wife's and Shinju's waterbending, there weren't any masters nearby and he preferred that Shinju go to a university to study rather than one of the poles to master waterbending. There were no universities anywhere in the southern Earth Kingdom and Intan was in her third year at Ba Sing Se University, but Shinju didn't want to be at the same school as her sister again and be constantly overshadowed by her. If she could have, she would have gone to The University of the Northern Water Tribe, but they only accept actual citizens of either the Northern or Southern Tribe. Between Ba Sing Se and Republic City, she was going to end up in an urban setting either way. So Shinju decided Republic City University would be the better way to go because she heard there were plenty of waterbenders in the United Republic of Nations' capital and that the people of Ba Sing Se were snobby and didn't take too well to benders other than earthbenders in the Middle Ring which was where the university was located.

Babur loved his youngest son unconditionally, but there always seemed to be a lingering sense of disappointment because he didn't turn out to be the earthbending son he always wanted. Shinju's parents always denied any idea of having favorites but sometimes it was just impossible to hide Babur's pride for Intan, Miia's special connection with Shinju, and the feeling of undervalue Shai felt most of the time. The most heartbreaking thing that Shai had to live with was his last words to his father being ones of a fight between the two over the issue of the neglect he felt before he went off to school a year ago. When he returned home that day, his father had passed away from a sudden heart attack.

The loss of her father was probably the most important reason of all for Shinju to attend Republic City University this year like her father died expecting she would. As she was stepping onto the train, Shinju looked back behind her at her mother Miia, her sister Intan, and her brother Shai standing at the gate to watch her until the train was too far into the distance to see anymore. Then Shinju brought her eyes up to gaze at the towering Qing Mountain, the natural protector of the Nasib Valley and started to tremble at the thought that this would be the last time she would see the mountain in a very long time. The leaves of the trees on the mountain were just starting to turn yellow for autumn and it was always the most gorgeous sight in the world to see the valley turn into a sea of reds and oranges. Ever since he died, Shinju would look at the Qing and think only of her father, for the mountain was just as strong and gracious as he was.

Shinju took her seat on the train and got herself comfortable so she could face her 4 days straight of traveling which would require many transfers from train to train, heading northwest, Republic City bound. She drank up the sight of the Qing outside her window as much as she could and strained her neck as they increasingly raced farther and farther behind her. When she realized she did not have super sight or the ability to turn her head 180 degrees, she rummaged through her carryon bag to pull out her poetry notebook where she spent most of her time lost inside of. There was also her attempt of a sketch of the Qing Mountain next to one of her poems titled _Summer Sounds in the Valley_.

Another reason she chose Republic City was because in the pictures she had seen before, she was enchanted by how the city opened out into the ocean and how it fit itself into the giant mountains behind it. Shinju felt she had the strength to do this, no matter how much she would miss home, as long as there are mountains.

**Just wanted to point out that I started writing this fanfic and came up with the idea for a university in Republic City before it was confirmed on Welcome to Republic City online, but it's not really a surprise that there is one so it works for me! =] Korra will come soon in the story, but I wanted to establish Shinju's character first and I want to take my time developing her story in Republic City.**

**Here's to hoping you like it and want to read more!**

**Enjoy!**


	2. Train Running Towards the City

Chapter 2-

_Shinju was in an alleyway between two factories. In her hand, she held a teacup filled with green tea and around her neck, she wore a blue velvet band. An unsettling feeling came upon her and she started to walk down the alleyway. It seemed though that no matter how far she walked, there didn't seem to be an end._

_ The silhouette of a tall figure started to take shape ahead of her. Her curiosity prompted her to quicken her pace. It started to become clear the figure was a man. The tall man turned around and revealed his face and the first thing Shinju noticed was the striking emerald that cut through the darkness of the alleyway._

_ She abandoned her grip on the teacup and let it drop to the ground as Shinju started to bound her way down the alley. Running only seemed to increase the distance between her and the man, but that didn't keep her from continuing any less. But her breathing seemed to get heavier and heavier and when she felt it was about to escape from her, a hand grabbed hers and Shinju was forced to stop because the hand was strong enough to not be pulled by her momentum._

_ Once she stopped, the man ahead of her started to walk in her direction and Shinju looked behind her to see who had seized her. Shai's cyan eyes looked at her with a sense of reassurance. Reassurance of what, Shinju didn't know, but it still calmed her down and they waited for the man to approach them._

_ The emerald hue collected itself in the man's eyes as he came closer and then Shinju couldn't contain herself anymore. She saved the man a few steps by leaping toward him again. The figure stopped and opened his arms to her._

_ As Shinju nearly reached his embrace, Shai came down on the man and a flash of lightening erupted before her. The force of the blast threw her onto the ground. As the light began to die, Shinju sat herself up and saw her father lying on the ground. The emerald glow from his eyes was now black._

_ She then looked up at her brother who was hovering above Babur's body. She could now see he was wearing some sort of dark green jumpsuit. In his hands was a helmet which he then lifted to his head and but on. It was the most terrifying looking thing Shinju had ever seen. It was black and completely covered his face with no opening for a mouth but two small windows for eyes. The glass to the windows was not transparent and her brother's eyes disappeared behind them._

_ Shai now lifted his hand above Shinju and the same lightening appeared again, but she could tell that it wasn't natural. The lightening started to come down fast until suddenly, two walls of earth protruded from the ground, one on each side of Shai. They then slammed together._

_ There was no space between the earth for Shai to be contained in. He was gone._

_ The emerald light returned at the end of the alley again, but Babur still lay still on the ground before Shinju. This time, an ecstatic feeling overwhelmed her that was completely unexplainable. Shinju picked herself up off the ground._

_ As she went to take a step forward, Shinju felt a clamping around her neck. The blue velvet band began to tighten and straggle her. She collapsed to the ground again, but the emerald light grew brighter and brighter._

Shinju felt like she was falling and opened her eyes. The only bright thing in front of her now was the light on the ceiling of the train car. Outside her window it was dark out and she could no longer see mountains but only heavily wooded forest. A woman was coming down the aisle of the car with a food and drink. Shinju realized she was sweating and just asked for a glass of water. She checked the time on the clock of the train car and noticed it was a couple hours before sunrise. After that dream, Shinju felt like she couldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard she tried. All she could think about was how she could have such a nonsensical vision like that and brushed aside any thought that it could hold any real meaning.

As daybreak came, Shinju could see the landscape change from forest to plain fields. Plains to desert. And then desert mountains. Yes they were mountains, but they were tan and dull and held no beauty to her. The conductor announced that it would take another half an hour to get to Omashu where Shinju would have to make her first connection. She collected her belongings from under her seat and noticed a flyer on the ground. On it said _JOIN THE EQUALISTS_ and had a picture of a hooded man wearing a white mask. She had no idea who the Equalists were and didn't care. She then left the flyer on her seat when she got up to leave, thinking nothing of its importance.

Shinju rode the railways along the western coast of the Earth Kingdom getting off every couple of hours to transfer trains. After her 4 days of travel, she made her final transfer before Republic City in the small village on the slopes of the Makapu Volcano. When she browsed around the town a while for something to eat, it was hard to turn a corner without seeing an Equalists propaganda poster in her face. Shinju did notice that the farther and farther she got in her travels, the more of these Equalists photos appeared in the cities and even small villages.

She couldn't tell if reaching the end of her journey was something to be glad about or something to dread over. It didn't matter what her feelings were though and the sooner she got there, the sooner she would be going home for her midwinter break. It would also seem shorter if she slept the last train ride through, even if it was the middle of the day.

It didn't take long for her to become hypnotized by the ocean running along side the train and Shinju dozed off just short of a hundred miles to Republic City.


	3. Welcome to Republic City

Chapter 3 -

_SHINJU THE OPPRESSOR!_

Shinju jumped out of her sleep when there was a huge thump on the roof of the train car. When she fell asleep there was sunlight and it was still there to help wake her up as her train started to make its way in between buildings and under the bridges of Republic City. Her window looked out into the bay and she had a clear view of the Statue of Avatar Aang. Although she enjoyed every subject in school for the most part, if she had to choose one, history was the one she was interested in the most and especially more recent history and the 100 Years War.

The train went deeper and deeper into the city, in the opposite direction of the bay and on its way to Central City Station, it passed by City Hall and Republic City Park. The train pulled into the underground garage of the station. The terminal alone was packed with people and their clothing ranged from more than just green. As she got off the train with all her bags she was so upset with herself that she didn't pack lighter. Shinju dragged her trunk case up the stairs to the lobby of the station. She desperately looked around for any signs pointing her to the trolley.

Figuring she would have more luck outside, Shinju squeezed herself and all her luggage through the doors that she muttered to herself could have been bigger in the first place for all of these people. The next monument she could add to her list of sightseeing today was the steel man mounted on a platform in front of the station. The area at the base of the statue was more vacant and only occupied by a couple of kids. Shinju made her was over to the courtyard to pull herself and her things together and to try to see a trolley from there.

As she walked toward the statue of Firelord Zuko, people were bumping into Shinju left and right and didn't even give her the decency to say excuse me. A few feet in front of the statue, her foot caught something and her and all her luggage came crashing down on the hard brick ground. Shinju's bags burst open and all of her clothing spilled out everywhere. The kids hanging out by the statue started to point and laugh at her and it made it feel like good old times again from primary school. Shinju scrambled to retrieve her things and then one of the little girls came over and snatched her father's gold pocket watch from Shinju.

"HEY! Give that back!" Shinju dived forward after the kid but ended up falling over herself a second time. The girl raced back toward her friends but then an older boy came around the corner of the statue and snatched the watch right out of her hands.

"Now that was a nice pitpock, Mimi, but what did I tell you about stealing from tourists who clearly don't need any trouble?" the guy said.

"Aww! Now that you're older Bo, you always ruin the fun!" Mimi contested instead of giving an answer to his question.

"That's not true!" Bo fired back in reply, "Just last week I showed you how to snag moon peaches from the market stands downtown!" The boy now looked at Shinju and started to strut his way towards her looking like he had antspiders in his pants or something, "Here you go, Miss. I'm regrettably sorry for my little friend's actions. Once she sees gold, there is no stopping her from getting her hands on it."

Shinju was still on the ground on her knees, trying to gather up her more personal items of clothing. The boy reached out his hand to her to help her up. The embarrassment was something she knew all too well, but there was never an act of kindness that followed the bullying so she didn't know what to do with the hand offered in front of her. Remembering watching Intan's training session with her countless earthbending boyfriends, when you're on the ground and a boy offers you your hand, you're suppose to take it so he can help you up. Shinju did this, trying to hide her uncertainty with herself and let the boy help her to her feet.

"Here's you watch and I'll get your stuff for you," he quickly packed her stuff for her and then picked the bags up as an offer to carry them all the way to the university for her. When she got the confidence to look him in the face, her pulse instantly froze from the emerald of his eyes striking through her. After what seemed like forever, she regained rhythm to it again and declined his offer, "Oh no. I got this. Just… thanks for getting my watch back.

"Oh, are you sure?" Bo was the opposite and wasn't use to rejection, "It's really no trouble at all."

"No, I'm good," Shinju reassured him, "But if you could, would you point me in which direction the trolley is to get to the university?"

"Ah, schoolgirl," he playfully added, "It's just behind the station to your left. There should be signs pointing to you in the right way to go."

"Thank you so much, Sir," Shinju went to bender over to get her bags on the ground, but the boy was already ahead of her. He handed them to her with a smile and she took them while taking in one more look at his eyes. Shinju then turned back to face the station again.

Closing his eyes as a sign of confidence, the boy began to declare, "Welcome to Republic City! I hope you like it here! My name is Bo-," but when he opened his eyes, he saw that Shinju had already disappeared into the crowd. Bo gave a deep sigh of disappointment and then turned around toward the statue again.

"Bo, when are you ever gonna get a real girlfriend!" Mimi pestered.

"What are you talking about Mimi? You'll always the only girl for me! I don't need anyone else! I just flirt with other ladies to annoy you," The little girl blushed and ran over to hug Bo's knees cause that's all she could reach too. He looked at her in admiration for her innocence, but then gazed back out at the sea of people in the direction the university girl went in. He took a sigh and thought to himself that he probably was never going to see her again, anyways.

Shinju made it on the trolley that headed northeast toward the university. She finally had her bags under her control, but the trolley was just as crowded as the station but the car was mainly comprised of others her age and some of them looked just as out of their element as she did. Shinju noticed that the city became a little less grey and more gold as the trolley made its way closer and closer to the campus.

All of the sudden, the tall buildings and skyscrapers broke away and the sky opened up for what felt like the first time in this city for Shinju. It was hard to see what was in front of the trolley from where she was sitting, but the first thing Shinju noticed was the freshly manicured lawns of grass and flowers as they entered the university grounds. The trolley started to turn off to the side and became parallel to campus center. Shinju could now have a clear view of the towering, gold encrusted temple in the middle of the university and its stunning reflection in the pond in front of it. She now saw her first trees that were present in the city and they were also starting to turn yellow and orange like the leaves on the mountains back home. On the opposite side of the pond was statue number three of the day. It was the glowing blue monument of Sokka, the founder of Republic City University. The man made of stone was standing holding an armful of scrolls in his left and a sword with a blade made of a black mineral in his right.

The contrast of colors from the university to the rest of the city made Shinju feel like she had just passed between two completely different worlds. The number of people on campus though didn't change all that much from the train station. The trolley approached the temple and came to a stop right at the base of the building. All of the students on the trolley poured out of the car and scrambled to collect their bags. Shinju felt a little better about her packing when she saw other students with over 10 pieces of luggage, but most of those people had their own personal butlers to carry them.

Shinju followed the flock of young students who were making their way into the golden temple. Many kids were just saying goodbye to their parents now and Shinju wished she had that luxury. Walking up the steps, one of these students with a butler for her bags cut her off right as Shinju was entering the doors. The girl was wearing more shades of pink and dark reds than Shinju knew existed and didn't bother to say excuse me like the people at the station wouldn't either. If only half the people in this city had the same manners as that street boy from before.

Eventually Shinju found an opening into the temple and came into an area even bigger than Central City Station. The stained glass on the roof brought the light in with countless hues of blues and yellows and purples and all other sort of colors and the four symbols of each nation were equally spaced on the dome of the temple. There were lines for each of the residence halls and Shinju made her way to the table for Circe Hall which she had been informed by letter weeks earlier would be her new home. She was surprised to see the girl in pink who was clearly rich was in the same line as her, a girl from the country. When Shinju reached the front of the line, the woman at the booth asked for her name, town, and letter of acceptance.

"Shinju of Anshon," Shinju replied as she shifter quickly through her bag for the letter and pulled it out after a few moments all wrinkled and crinkly because she thought people would just trust her on her word for who she was. The woman gave her a judgmental glare and then handed Shinju her room key and a map. The gestured almost spoke "here's a loaf of bread and a dull knife, now go have fun surviving in the wilderness for a month." Shinju took the "gifts" and made her way out of the temple as quickly as possible. She would have loved to have stayed more and admire the architecture, but I guess no one in the city cared for such things.

Looking at the map, Shinju located the temple in the center of the campus and then scanned through all the smaller building names straining for Circe Hall. It wasn't until she looked at the northern most section of the university that she found it stuck in the corner of the map. Shinju would have loved nothing more than a smaller trolley service to help her get her things to the dorms. She then picked a main walkway that went through the center of the campus to get her north toward Circe Hall.

So many other students had the same idea as her and the walkway was swarming with people. She was right about how the city was going to be stuffy and overrun. A lot of kids were in groups and seemed to previously know each other. This loneliness felt like school at home as well, but on a much more massive scale.

About halfway up the walkway, Shinju came to a fountain in the middle of the path. She suddenly realized how thirsty she was from all the walking and stopped to bend herself a drink. The fountain was covered with those Equalists flyers that had become famous to her already. Putting down her bags, Shinju then lifter her hand and conducted a stream of water to arch over continuously like a smaller fountain. When she started to lean forward to bring her mouth to the running water, a shrill voice yelled at her from down the walkway, "HEY! NO WATERBENDING IN THE FOUNTAIN!"

The order frightened Shinju so much, that instead of bringing her head up, she lost her balance bending over the side of the fountain that she went over the edge and landed in the extremely shallow water. The man who the voice belonged to came running over towards her with a look of stupid pride in himself for playing the tattletale. The most striking thing about this man was his huge sideburns on his face that made him look like a monkey. Shinju picked herself up and tried to dry off the best she could.

"You can't bend out in the public walkway and you can't drink the water from the fountain either! I don't see why anyone would want to though seeing as it's more gross than the jook they serve in the dining halls," the man also didn't have any regard to help Shinju when she struggled to get herself out of the fountain.

"I'm sorry. I was just thirsty and it's hot out. Usually all the fountains and springs at home are clean and everyone drinks from them," she really wasn't liking this place at all and their weird rules like not being allowed to bend. Why would someone not be allowed to bend if they could?

"Well you're not home anymore now, freshman!" the man threw the reality back in Shinju's face, "Now get to your dorm and no bending out in the public areas anymore, you got it?"

"Yes, sir," Shinju growled and then finally reached back over onto the walkway. People were staring at her wondering why she was soaked as she bent over to grab her bags and continue to the edge of the campus.

It seemed like hours, but Shinju made it to Circe hall and looked at her key for the room number. The number was 519 which meant it was all the way up on the top floor. She prepared for the climb when it seemed like she had just finished a marathon. It took 10x longer than it should have for Shinju to hike her way up to the 5th floor and then she made her way down the hall past 18 doors. She took out her key again and then fit it into the lock on the door handle.

Shinju swung open the door and threw her bags inside. The room was fully furnished and had a bed in the middle of the room with a desk to study at and a dresser for her clothes. To the right of the door, there was a sink and then another door that went into the bathroom with a toilet and a shower. Past the toilet was a third door and coming from it was a lot of rustling and banging. Confused and concerned, Shinju went to the other side of the bathroom and opened the door into the other room to see the princess of pink and red ordering her butler around, telling him to keep putting her dresser back and forth between two spaces because she couldn't make up her mind on where she wanted it to be.

Shinju didn't get her attention from just entering into the room and decided to speak up instead, "Hello there?"

The girl was whipped around by the sudden voice and focused her eyes on Shinju in surprise. She then stuck a huge smile on her face and ran toward her new roommate, "Why hello there roomie!"

The girl picked Shinju up in a massive embrace to the point where Shinju was feeling squished. After taking in all the hug she needed, she put Shinju's feet back on the ground, "Why aren't just the prettiest, little thing! I've always wanted a sister and this is just gonna work out so well! My name is Zina and I can tell already that we are going to have to much fun here together!" even though Zina wasn't strangling Shinju anymore with a hug, her manic optimism seemed to be continuing the job, "Aren't you so so so excited to finally be here at Republic City University now! The living conditions aren't the most favorable in the world, but I'm dying from joy to be independent from my parents now! I mean they are paying my entire tuition to go here and they live just in the other side of the city in Dragon Flats, but now I only need to see them if I need more money!"

All the sudden, the two hear a crash as Zina's butler dropped what appeared to be a very expensive vase on the ground. Zina's face turned as red as her dress and she walked over to the man and pushed him out her door, "Thank you, Gron but I don't need your services any longer! Now if you'll please, you can go back to my parents to receive your new orders!"

The man looked at her in despair, "But Miss Zina, my only job was to serve you. If you don't need me, I'll be out of a job," the man looked like he was about to cry in front of the two girls but Zina didn't notice his worry.

"Then you'll have so much fun looking for a new one! Bye!" she slammed the door in his face and then took a deep, frustrated sigh to turn at Shinju and say, "Nonbenders, am I right? Always acting like the world is out to get them and that life is so hard. Oh well! So, enough about me, what's your name?"

"Shinju," she replied to the question but was still distracted by what just happened.

"Oh… well that's a pretty name for a pretty girl… I guess…" Zina made her way to her suitcases and shuffled around for a brush, "So where are you from Shin-jay?"

"Umm," Shinju didn't feel like correcting her on her pronunciation would solve anything, "Anshon, it's a farming town in the southern Earth Kingdom."

"I see," Zina was clearly more involved in organizing her makeup than Shinju's bio, "So you're and earthbender then?"

"No, I'm actually a waterbender. My mom is from the…" something in her head told her to create a small white lie, "… Northern Water Tribe and met my father in her travels."

Zina turned around with a look of disappointment, "Awww, that means you can't join the Firenze Fire Sorority with me and my other firebender friends. So you're gonna try and pledge Salacia Water?"

"Uhh… I… don't know?" Shinju didn't even know what a sorority was.

"Well I heard the Salacia gets it in real well with the Fintan Fraternity, if you know what I mean," No. Shinju really didn't know what she meant. With a yawn, Zina turned to Shinju and abandoned her cosmetics from her attention for once, "I would normally go and look for a scene to crash and never go to bed this early, but I'm just bushed from moving all of my stuff across this great city. I'm gonna turn in and get my boyfriend to move all my furniture for me later. It's was nice to meet you Shinjon and here's to our brand, new lives!"

Zina gave Shinju another constricting hug and pushed her into the connecting bathroom.

"Goodnight…?" Shinju said through the close door and made her way into her own room. She herself was quite tired after traveling for days. There was good-sized window on the far wall and Shinju went to see what the sight was like. Outside her window, the ground and the space before it was littered with apartment complexes with loud music coming out of them, which meant they were mostly inhabited by upperclassmen who had outgrown the dorms.

These apartments stretched out for a few miles and then suddenly stopped at a wall of stone. Shinju followed up the stone wall with her eyes and the grey gradually became green and then as her head was almost looking straight up above her, she saw snow followed by sky. The view from Shinju's dorm room window was the mountains she had wondered over in the pictures of Republic City.

She then raced over to her bed and started to push it toward the same corner that the window was in. The bed made an awful screeching noise against the floor, but that didn't hinder her motivation. Once she finished struggling to move the heavy piece of furniture, Shinju laid in it with content and was able to clearly see the mountains towering above her. She then went through her small bag to get her poetry book. Lying back down, she opened her book and compared her drawing to the mountains out her window and smiled at the similarity apart from the snowy top on the mountains of Republic City. There was no beating this perfect of a view.


	4. Down with Bending

Chapter 4-

It wasn't possible for Shinju to have any nightmares tonight because it wasn't possible for her to sleep. As tired as she was, the noise from the countless parties in the dorms and in the apartments kept her wide-awake all night. It was also stressful being in a completely new bed in a completely new room in a completely new place. When daybreak rolled around and the sun started to rise over the mountains, Shinju just started to cry because she didn't even get an hour of sleep.

She got up for the day and went to her suitcase for clothes because she hadn't bothered to put away her things and decided to live out of her bags for a couple of days. She decided to wear more blue items of clothing than she did at home so she could finally identify herself for whom she truly was instead of blending into a crowd of only green. The scene in the morning was the opposite of the night before, dead and silent. Shinju poked her head in Zina's room and saw she was still sleeping along with the rest of the campus who partied their night away.

Shinju was hungry but the dining halls wouldn't open until classes did tomorrow. She grabbed her small bag with money inside it and headed out of the dorms in search of something to eat. With the map she had gotten yesterday, Shinju was able to find her way out of the campus and into the real city. She wandered down a street lined with shops, but she found it strange how on top of them were places where people were living in above connected to them. The more time Shinju walking around, the more she realized how bad Republic City smelt. The air was stale and polluted and everywhere she went reeked of garbage and sewage.

Shinju was staying on only one street as to make it easier to just turn around in the opposite direction when she wanted to go back. After about twenty minutes of walking she came across a teashop that looked promising. As Shinju opened the door to go inside though, there was only enough room between the door and the end of the line for her to fit herself in. Other people came behind her and waited with the door open as if it was a daily norm to wait for their morning tea in a line this long.

Deciding it would be better to start adapting to city life now, Shinju kept her place in line and waited to get her tea and pastry as long as it took for her to get to the shop in the first place. After forty minutes of being away from the university, she decided to make her way back the way she came and not get herself lost in the city. The only breath of fresh air Shinju got out of her walk outside was seeing just as many waterbenders as earthbenders around. It was also different to see so many firebenders and wondered if all of them were just as high strung and perky as Zina. Shinju was still absolutely puzzled though by what she meant when she said, "Nonbenders, am I right?"

It wasn't a surprise to continue to see the Equalists posters everywhere she turned though. Whoever the Equalists were, they were doing a horrible job getting their point across with these flyers. Seeing them more and more didn't help Shinju understand what they were about.

Shinju's feet eventually traded the concrete of the city for the green grass of the campus and made it quickly back to Circe Hall without any luggage on her this time. Climbing the five flights of stairs still wasn't a pleasure and when she got to her door, it hit her that she had left her key in her room. Shinju started pounding on Zina's door without an answer so she started yelling her name to wake her up. The door behind her opened up and a girl with bloodshot eyes and bad bedhead looked at her in anger, "Could you shut up for Spirit's sake!"

Shinju should start making a list of all the embarrassing crap she was pulling in Republic City, "Whoops… sorry. I just locked myself out of my room and my roommate is still asleep and…"

"Yeh, yeh, yeh," the girl cut her off, "But screaming and yelling is gonna get you kicked out of the dorms and then you won't have a room to begin with, so shut up!"

The girl slammed her door on Shinju and she then felt that Zina wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, so she took herself and her tea outside again. There was a pretty maple tree in a clearing not too far from the hall. Shinju went over to the tree and sat down to finally eat. For a moment it actually felt like being home under a maple tree and enjoying her green tea early in the morning, but the sudden roar of the exhaust engine from a satomobile fixed that for her. Shinju spilt the rest of her tea all over herself in a jump of terror. Looking around to see if anyone would tell her off, she simply pulled the tea out of her clothes with her waterbending but she was still upset she didn't have anything to drink anymore.

As Shinju got up to find someplace else to be, she found her answer when she saw Zina holding onto the arm of a guy who was with a larger group of people. She started to run toward the group and called for Zina to wait up. She looked back at Shinju but didn't stop and kept walking. Shinju sprinted faster and finally reached Zina's side panting.

"Oh… hey, ummm…" it wasn't surprising that she had forgotten her name already.

"Shinju." she was embarrassed she had to remind her.

"Ah, yes! Shinju darling. How are you this lovely morning?" Zina faked a smile as she spoke.

"Not so good. I locked myself out of my room this morning and I was wondering if you could let me back in through your door?"

"Well, you see, I was heading with my boyfriend here, Zeno, to the bending gym to watch him work out…"

"She can come with us," one of the other boys in the group suggested, but Zina's face made it seem like the worst idea in the world.

Shinju knew Zina didn't want her tagging along and she thought just watching guys working out was ridiculously stupid, but she was also extremely curious about this bending gym, "Alright, I'll come."

Zina's face sank, but that didn't stop Shinju from joining the group as they walked down the main walkway until they got to a huge building complex. Inside, there were many people playing ball sports or lifting normal weights. They made there way down a long hall and then came to a door to a separate larger gym. The door though was covered in Equalists flyers and painted with big, red characters that read, "DOWN WITH BENDING."

Zeno went up to the door and started to tear down all of the flyers in rage, "Those no good geeks! I don't see why we let nonbenders into this university!"

"Don't worry, Zeno, baby," Zina came up behind him and tried to calm him down, "I can get my daddy to talk to the dean about this and maybe then we can get those losers off our campus for good."

Zeno kicked the door open and rest of the group filed in after him without making a sound. The gym itself was huge and so much nicer compared to the other gyms. There were two huge pools of water for bending, crates of earth plates with targets on the walls, and every surface was made of the space was covered in fireproof material. Eyeing the water, Shinju started to make a break for the pools until she heard Zina clear her throat more loudly than she needed to from behind her. Shinju turned around to see all the other girls sitting by the wall and Zina pointing at the chair next to her to tell Shinju to just sit and watch.

Disappointed, Shinju did as she was told like a child and sat by the wall. The boys started to do reps of different exercises involving their bending while the girls watched in awe and amazement like they had never seen a member of the opposite sex before. None of them seemed to be very concerned with what was on the door when they came in. Shinju could now make the connection between the Equalists and nonbenders, but it still didn't make any sense to her. She knew asking Zina who the Equalists were would make her look like an idiot, but she could really care less at this point and brought herself to the nerve to say something, "So, who did that to the door back there?"

All Shinju got at first were blank stares of disbelief until Zina broke the awkward silence, "How in the world did you get into this school and not know who the Equalists are?"

"I'm not even that smart and I know who the Equalists are!" the girl next to Zina exclaimed.

"My father says they're nothing but a bunch of terrorists!" another one of Zina's friends said.

"The people who graffitied our door weren't the actual Equalists, but they were loser students who had nothing better to do. The real Equalists though are some serious shit," Zina started to get her emotions really involved in her answer, "They go around attacking innocent benders like they own the city but they're really just cowards too scared to ask for what they want the right way."

"But what do they want?" Shinju dared to ask.

"They want to take power away from benders and destroy our way of life. I swear if they could, they would actually go around and wipe out every last bender altogether," Zina didn't even look at Shinju when she spoke, but just stared ahead toward they boys exercising but she could tell that she wore a blank stare.

"But why would nonbenders have any less power than people who can bend?" Shinju was still not understanding the concept Zina was explaining to her.

"I knew someone from outside the city wouldn't understand. You probably hardly know any nonbenders yourself and don't know what they're like," Zina was quick to judge.

"I know plenty of nonbenders. My brother is one!" Shinju started to feel enraged by her comment.

"And you think you're the only one!" Zina had broken her image of being only a perky, happy go lucky girl after that. Shinju knew then that she pushed it too far and just sat there for the rest of the time in the gym so she could gain entry back to her dorm room. Not another girl said anything for the rest of the boys' practice session.

**Sorry the 3****rd**** chapter was so long and how I lied about Korra coming soon. I'm taking much longer and going into much more detail about Shinju's character than I thought I would.**

**Thanks for reading so far!**


	5. A Lesson and A Sermon

Chapter 5-

Shinju and Zina hadn't spoken to each other since they got back to their rooms after the other day and Shinju now new to keep her room key on her at all times. She had finally put away the last of her suitcases under the bed and now the room was more full with a little bit more life. Most of Shinju's classes were the basic subjects of arithmetic, reading, and writing for her first year at the university.

She had attended the first classes of every subject in the beginning of the week, but Shinju was just having her first history lecture today. Her other classes were fine, but she was looking forward this one, seeing as the main subject of the class was on the 100 Years War. It was held in a building not too far from Circe Hall. The building itself was very large and Shinju just thought that a big building meant a lot of normal sized classrooms, but after locating the correct room and walking inside, it was overwhelming to see the size of it was that of a theater and it seemed like the rows of tables and chairs went up forever into the ceiling.

Shinju also noticed she was early due to the fact that there was no one else present in the room even though to her, fifteen minutes before a class was on time. Too scared of what hid up in the back of the classroom, she took a seat in one of the first couple of rows and opened her poetry journal she brought along. People finally started to trickle in after Shinju had written two completely new poems. Looking at her father's pocket watch, there seemed to be less than five minutes left and the professor had still not shown up.

Just as she put the watch back in her bag, the man with the monkey sideburns from the first day strutted in carrying an armful of papers. Shinju sat frozen in her seat believing that sitting still would prevent the man from seeing her. He eyed her anyways and gave her a quick look of disgust as he continued to make his way over to the professor's podium. This made Shinju's heart sink and had her hopes of enjoying one thing at this school crushed in her face. She also felt a little concerned when a small trail of Equalists flyers fell behind him from his stack of papers.

Noticing Shinju was staring at the flyers, the man quickly picked them up off the floor while continuing to give her the evil eye. Like Zina and her friends the other day, no one paid much attention and after learning her lesson the hard way, Shinju new that she had to start ignoring these things like everyone else was. The man then proceeded to take a piece of chalk and wrote his name on the board as _Professor Proteus_ and under that he scribbled _100 Years War_ and underlined it twice. The other students in the classroom continued to talk as he tried to start the lecture over them.

"The 100 Years War was the last globally impacted conflict in our history," many people began to quiet down because the tone that Professor Proteus was using happened to sound very angry, "Many of your grandparents probably directly suffered or served in the war from whichever perspective nation your ancestors are from and maybe even some of you older folks have parents who were traumatized by it as children. As you can infer from its title, this engagement last for a century because of the Fire Nation's success in dominating most of the world, but can any of you tell me what caused this period of devastation?"

Shinju agreed with him that the 100 Year War was no pleasant story, but the way the professor talked about it was completely morbid and left her very unsure about how exactly he wanted his question to be answered. She was also very less willing to speak up to anyone on anything lately and sat silently. None of the other students answered from either the same fear she felt or they were just asleep.

Another boy built up the nerve that Shinju couldn't and finally answered Professor Proteus' question, "It was the distorted vision of Firelord Sozin to spread the prosperity of the Fire Nation to the entire world and the Fire Nation continued to persist with their plans after the murder of Avatar Roku and the disappearance of Avatar Aang."

"Why?" the Professor's response was vague and confusing.

"What do you mean why?" the boy seemed annoyed that his answer wasn't good enough for Professor Proteus.

"Why was the Firelord's vision distorted?" the professor explained.

"Because he was really a greedy man and his real objective was to expand the Fire Nation…?" the boy was confused if this was the answer he was looking for.

"Why was he a greedy man?" Shinju was scared about where Professor Proteus was going with this.

"Because he was an evil guy? I don't know," the boy was starting to regret raising his hand in the first place.

"Why was his character evil?" the professor pushed on.

"I don't know, professor! I give up!"

"BECAUSE HE WAS A BENDER!" the entire lecture hall was silent and all of those students who had been sleeping before were now wide-awake and had a look of being slapped in the face. The boy from before, his face was melting in rage over how ridiculous the professor's answer was but didn't make an effort to verbally disagree with him.

It was Shinju who had the nerve this time to say something, "What are you talking about?"

She had committed herself so hard before to not to say anything in the class, but this escaped her from under all her control. Every single pair of eyes in the room focused in on her along with the professor's. Some students looked shocked, some looked happy or even proud, but many looked just as angry as Professor Proteus. After a long awkward moment, Proteus' face turned from livid to almost humored and directed Shinju on her comment, "Now you're a bender, aren't you Miss?"

Shinju had let go of all of her embarrassment because she felt there was no undoing the impact of her comment and decided to pursue her argument with dignity, "Yes I am, Sir."

"So I bet you believe that Firelord Sozin was a noble man?" the professor was quick to judge her.

"No. I believe his vision was wrong and his action were immoral, but I don't believe it was because he was a firebender."

"Then what about Chin the Conqueror? He was an earthbender with a ruthless appetite for conquest and tyranny or do you neglect to know your history that far into the past?"

"No. I know who Chin the Conqueror was and yes, he was another bender with a corrupt mindset, but are you forgetting, Sir, about both Avatar Kyoshi and Avatar Roku who defied these dictators and Avatar Aang who ended the 100 Years War? They were all masters of all of the four elements and none of them held the desire to control the entire world for themselves."

"Are you kidding me, you stupid girl? The Avatar is the worst dictator of them all! They absolutely want to control the entire world just as much as a normal bender would. Have you all heard how the new Avatar, Avatar Korra is in Republic City now? I ran into her the other day and all she did was taunt and mock for being a nonbener. I felt victimized! Who knows how much time we have left until she and the rest of the big bender-run government will completely take over this city and whose to say they wont stop there like Firelord Sozin or Chin the Conqueror? Huh?" everyone was wondering if Professor Proteus was finished with his tirade and when it seemed like he did, Shinju collected her books into her bag and got up out of her seat.

"I'm out of here," she headed for the door and didn't plan on ever passing though it again once she was out of the lecture hall, "This is a propaganda sermon if you ask me, not a history class."

Shinju heard booing coming from the classroom as she left, but she didn't care. It seemed like everyday she was feeling more lonely and more miserable here and started to panic at the thought of staying in Republic City any longer, but she knew there was nothing she could do. It would make her a disgrace to go back home now, to both the town of Anshon and to her father's memory.

Shinju headed back for her dorm room and tears started to sting her eyes as she walked through the autumn wind. She thought she would just have to deal with homesickness coming to Republic City, but she never knew how cruel both benders and nonbenders could be to her and each other over such an idiotic issue. It just didn't register with her how this whole problem and the Equalists existed. And how someone like a teacher could shut down a student like that. That is why she vowed to never go back to that class again. Who cares if it hurt her grade standings? It just wasn't worth it.


	6. Lost Myself in the Night

Chapter 6 –

For the next couple of days, Shinju kept her word and didn't go back to that "history" class anymore. She also never hear Zina in her room and assumed she was off with her boyfriend all of the time. It was a good thing she had a lot of experience from home on not having friends and being by herself, but in Anshon, she could still go out in her back yard and be right in the middle of nature. At home, she also had the liberty to waterbend wherever she wanted even if it was only for fun and relaxation.

She was also never truly alone at home like she was now. She always had Shai to goof around with when they weren't at school and she absolutely treasured all of her time she spent with her mother, whether it was doing chores around the farm or just bonding. Shinju was also missing Intan and how sometimes she would let her hang out with her friends when they came over. She knew that her friends would never want to hang out with Shinju on their own and that Intan had to make them be nice to her and include her. Shinju guessed that she never really thought before how much her sister really looked out for her like that.

And of course the pain still ached over losing her father even after a year. Like Shinju realized before, she always felt less despair over his loss at home when she was under the Qing Mountains, but even the mountains of Republic City weren't living up to the job. They couldn't possibly make up for everything else she hated about the city.

It was also just the simple fact that they weren't the Qing Mountains. They didn't hold the same value or the same majesty.

It was hard though to look at the mountains of Republic City and not be struck with astonishment, but no one else in the city seemed to notice them when she walked to the same teashop everyday. Like the university's golden temple, people went about their fast paced lives and didn't stop to appreciate the things that were beautiful in their world. And everywhere she went, Shinju found everyone on edge about the Equalists and all of the antibending feelings. After a week of being in the city and being directly exposed to the issue, it still didn't make any sense to her.

It was finally the first weekend of the semester and the first week Shinju could cross off her countdown till she went home for a break. Even on the school nights, students were all out drinking and throwing parties all night long and her insomnia was getting worse, but now that the weekend was here, the festivities were at their climax. It probably wasn't helping that Shinju would now go out for a second helping of caffeine at night just to get out of her room more.

All of the other market stores were closed and dark along the street, but many of the apartments above were lit up and full of life. Zina was probably at one of these parties with Zeno, but because of their no speaking terms, she didn't invite Shinju to any. She would have loved to go, but there was no point dwelling on something that wasn't going to be a reality anytime soon.

The teashop was the only place on the ground level that was open and there was actually quite a scene of people there for a weekend night. There was live music which is probably what attracted the people there tonight. After waiting in a much smaller line for her green tea, Shinju decided to sit a while and listen. It beat being alone in her dorm room and she never really got to hear much music before at home.

Shinju wasn't keeping track of time because she was so hypnotized and in such serenity enjoying the sounds. After a while, a woman came up to the small stage in the corner of the teashop accompanied by only a single string player. The melody he started to play from his instrument was slow and smooth, yet it had a certain swing to it and made you feel cheerful. The singer then started to add her poetry to the music.

_I lost my heart in Republic City,_

_The most booming city in bloom,_

_Where at night all the world's aglow._

_I left my love,_

_At ol' air isle,_

_When I was soaring above the sky,_

_I see its light from my window._

_Guys leave with their dolls,_

_As day fades and night falls,_

_Gentle and refined as a polished pearl._

_But the city at night,_

_Is why my heart took flight,_

_And now I'm the city's gal._

_I lost my heart in Republic City,_

_The most booming city in bloom,_

_I see its light from my window._

When the audience was done applauding her, everyone got up out of their seats and headed for the door. Shinju was panicking over the fact that she had stayed out till closing time and looked at her father's pocket watch. It was past midnight and she still wasn't too comfortable with the city to be out that late alone. Many couples tried to linger around the shop and continue to talk to each other, but were soon shooed outside where they could decide to either go their separate ways or head back to the same place together. Shinju didn't have this problem and started to make her way back to the campus alone.

She was getting more and more upset with herself about not paying attention to the time and staying out so late. At least here she wouldn't have a worried mother to come home and explain herself to like she personally never had the experience of doing before, but definitely witnessed it played out between Miia and Intan before. Another positive thing that Shinju brought herself to appreciate was that last song that was played in the teashop. Although she still hated Republic City and she never had any previous experiences with romance to relate to, Shinju couldn't help but admit how much she loved the song.

It kept playing itself on repeat in her head as she walked down the street that was now empty and completely dark except for the street lamps. Shinju was too enwrapped in her own simple bliss to notice Professor Proteus across the street in an alleyway with three other individuals who were dressed in dark green jumpsuits and wearing masked helmets. The professor then pointed Shinju out on the opposite sidewalk to the uniformed figures.

"That's her. That the student who's been spreading ideas around about benders' rights," he continued to hold a pompous tone in everything he was saying.

The people in the masks didn't have much care in what the professor had to say and immediately began to stealth their way behind Shinju. They started to close in on her, but she finally received her signal that something was wrong when the slight sound of pebbles crunching under feet interrupted her repetition of the song. Shinju's heart started to pound and she suddenly felt herself being pulled backwards by the waist. She wasn't being grabbed by hands, but by some sort of chain. Shinju let out short shriek that was muted by a dirty rag being tied around her mouth.

She grabbed at the rag at her face to try and jerk it off, but the attacker's force was too great. Shinju was scared for her teeth not to be punched in. She squirmed and wrestled to break free, but the attacker took their hand to her side and struck a point which made Shinju collapse. She didn't have any feeling below the waist and grew horrified.

Shinju had never experienced this degree of panic and helplessness before. It wasn't just the act of being kidnapped, but when she finally got a good look at her attacker, she was terrified to not see a human face to identify with. Shinju saw the face of a monster with lifeless spaces where eyes were suppose to be. This triggered her to shut down and she became limp in the kidnapper's hands.

The abductors took the unconscious Shinju to a small, black satomobile parked in the alleyway where Professor Proteus had watch the entire escapade like his favorite nickelodeon. He stood at attention when Shinju's attackers approached the car and shoved her in the back seat, in the hopes of receiving some sort of praise or recognition. But his dreams were dashed when the kidnappers completely ignored him and rode off.

They drove north and across the bridge leaving the main peninsula. Shinju regained her consciousness during the ride after countless bumps in the road causing the satomobile to jump and bounce her around. The roads off of the main peninsula were more unkempt and rougher than those in the main part of the city. Her fear slowly added hopelessness to itself. Shinju couldn't see outside the window and she didn't think it would make much of a difference because she knew little to none of the city to find any way back.

The satomobile eventually stopped at a warehouse in a heavily industrialized section of the upper city. Shinju's legs hadn't retained their feeling yet so her attackers had to drag her inside the warehouse. They then proceeded downstairs to what seemed like an office but with about a dozen jail cells in it. The kidnappers finally untied Shinju and threw her into the cell in the far corner.

She used all the strength she had left in her arms to prop herself up against the wall. Her voice was gone along with all her energy and was too terrified of what they would do if she started to just scream bloody murder. Considering the time of day and where she was, no one willing to help her would be able to hear her and she wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to face these guys.

Two soldiers stayed to keep watch as the others left the room. After a while, Shinju gained enough strength to let out a few whimpers and then started to cry on the floor of the jail cell. This was a rare moment in which she'd rather be at the university. Her crying started to become an act less out of despair, but boredom because Shinji figured there wasn't much more she could do in her time being locked away.

Shinju opened her eyes and started to feel the cold of the metal floor on her cheek. She had eventually fallen asleep when she couldn't cry anymore and found herself lying on the steel ground of her jail cell. The reason she woke up was because she started to hear loud banging and yelling coming from outside the door of the office/prison.

She also realized she had gained feeling in her legs again but stumbled as she picked herself up off the floor. Shinju clambered over to her cell door as the door to the room burst open to see the helmets shoving five men into different jail cells as well. All of the men seemed were pretty old except the last one to come through the door.

The last person they had captured to enter the room was a teenage boy about her age. It was the boy with the emerald eyes she had met at the train station. This time though he didn't appear smooth and his eyes didn't glow the same way they had when she met him. They were filled with the same fear that Shinju experienced when she was first captured. The boy caught her glance and his eyes turned to enrage.

All of the men were putting up more of a fight than Shinju did which forced the masked people to use these electric rods to prod them into their cells. All of them were also untied once inside and then the boy started kicking the bars of his cell in anger and shouting at his kidnappers, "How low of you to capture a girl! Let her go!"

The masked kidnappers didn't say anything in response to the boy but came over to his cell with an electric rod stunned him until he collapsed to the floor.

"No!" Shinju couldn't help but vocalize her concern in a screech. She knew she would have to pay for the noise she had made and the helmet walked over to her cell and zolted her just the same.

"Hey, come on man, they're just kids. Let 'em go," the grey haired man wearing rich red robes tried to vouch for the two teenagers, "I hired the boy for some security work. He shouldn't have to suffer for me. It's just me you want anyways."

It seemed like the group of men knew who these captors were and had encountered them before. Shinju was still clueless as to what exactly was going on but was appreciative of the man trying to help, as hopeless as it was. The helmet then moved over to the man's cell and actually spoke to him, "Amon's orders were to capture you and any other benders you were with regardless of age. This girl is a separate case for spreading her thoughts of advocacy for benders' rights at Republic City University. She is a parasite at an institution where ideas spread like wildfire and she will turn the turn the young bender population at the school into a great obstacle for us in our mission for equality unless we do something about it now."

"So what do you plan on doing? Are you going to go to the university, round up all the bending students and lock them away?" the man's voice started to become enraged now, "My daughter is at the university and if you dare as touch one hair on her head I swearr-AHHHH!"

The helmet had had enough of the man's protesting and shocked him into silence as well. After holding on long enough to listen to the conversation, Shinju slipped into unconsciousness again and didn't wake till the following night.

**The lyrics to **_**Lost My Heart in Republic City**_** are not mine. I got them from a song on SoundCloud that I found on Tumblr. Here's the link to the original post: .com/post/21120451801 you should download it and listen to it everyday like I do.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and favorites and I hope you continue to read!**

**Enjoy!**


	7. The Rally

Chapter 7-

After night fell over Republic City, hundreds of people started to congregate to the warehouse in the upper part of the city. All of these people presented a special Equalists flier as they approached the entrance guarded by a large, seemingly strong man. Inside the main space of the warehouse was a large stage on the back wall and the rest of the warehouse served as standing room only for the rally partakers.

Shinju and the other men were still locked in their cells in the basement with no idea that they would be the featured guests of this assembly. They also didn't even know how long they were to be kept down there and what for. When the warehouse above started to reach capacity, more helmeted soldiers entered the basement to collect their prisoners.

The helmets presented the electric rod to the men, which prompted them to cooperate this time and not cause a struggle. Shinju was still laying on the ground unconsciousness, but was startled out of her sleep when the helmets picked her up and began to bind her arms to her sides with rope. The prisoners were then filed into a single line.

Shinju took comfort in being placed next to the boy. He turned to her and gave a quick smile then whispered to her, _"Don't worry. We'll get out of this. These guys are just trying to scare us and psych us out."_

But he turned around and frowned to himself while his own heart was pounding out of his chest. The truth was he had no clue what was going to happen to them and he sincerely doubted their chances of escape. All of the sudden the scattered chatter from upstairs died down as the muffled sound of an announcer was barely audible enough for them down below to make out the words he was saying, "PLEASE WELCOME YOU HERO, YOU SAVIOR, AMON!"

The ceiling began to tremble from the eruption of the crowd above. Shinju couldn't tell if all her confusion about what was happening was due to her fear or because she just couldn't make any sense of it all. The rally continued to commence as the captives stayed in their line in the basement. The only thing that Shinju felt she could do was try and stay relatively calm like the men were instead of starting to crying again which is what she wanted to do. There continued to be a series of distinct reactions that they could hear upstairs from gasping to booing to more cheering.

After the assembly seemed to be well underway, the helmets finally instructed the line to proceed up the stairs and into the main space of the warehouse. Shinju could see the stage now and the massive crowd out in front of it. The sea of people didn't seem to stop. On the stage were more of the uniformed helmets and then one figure that was distinguishable from the rest.

This figure then turned toward them and stretched out his arm to the line as a sort of welcome, "Now for a demonstration. Please welcome Lightening Bolt Zolt, leader of the Triple Threat Triad and one of the most notorious criminals in Republic City."

He was addressing the man in the rich, red robes that had tried to stand up for Shinju before. She had never heard of the Triple Threat Triads before and didn't know if they were suppose to be another sort of organization like the Equalists or something else. She would have never guessed that a man that had tried to help her before would be some sort of criminal.

Shinju had also missed what the figure was saying before about what kind of demonstration he was referring to, but she got the idea that her and the rest of the line would be the subjects of such an experiment.

The line was lead up on stage and the crowd started to boo them, but most of their jeering was aimed at Lightening Bolt Zolt. He stood before the crowd with dignity even though he was still tied up. Shinju looked up behind her and saw the image on the Equalist fliers blown up into a massive mural as the backdrop of the stage. She then looked forward again at the figure in front of the microphone who continued to speak to the crowd and when he turned his head enough so Shinju could see his profile, her heart jolted into her throat when she made the connection.

Shinju started to reach a new level of panic when she started to comprehend that she was a bender in the middle of a rally surrounded by nonbenders who were filled with hate and anger toward her like Professor Proteus was. The only difference here was that that was in the confines of a nonviolent classroom and now she felt like an animal about to be slaughtered in sacrifice.

Shinju was expecting the worse and looked besides her at the boy who was absolutely as terrified as she was. All the positive life from his eyes was gone and replaced with hopeless fear.

Shinju felt now that the only thing she could do was listen to the Equalist man and cling to every word he said to figure out what fate he had in store for her. He continued to give a brief bio on Lightening Bolt Zolt and why, as a bender, he was a ruthless man, "Zolt has amassed a fortune by extorting and abusing nonbenders, but his reign of terror is about to come to an end. Now in the interest of fairness, I will give Zolt the chance to fight to keep his bending."

The helmeted soldier behind Zolt untied him and shoved him out in front of the speaker. Shinju clearly missed a very important piece of information from the beginning of the assembly and was completely lost as to what exactly he meant about giving the man the opportunity to fight to keep his bending. How could part of his identity be taken away without his whole self being destroyed by death?

Lightening Bolt Zolt stumbled to keep his balance before he turned to the speaker prepared to fight. He looked confident in his chances of defeating the man and called him out on his mistake of untying him, "You're gonna regret doing that, pal!"

Zolt then immediately fired flames of red directly at the man, but didn't manage to hit him. The man effortlessly dodged every single one with a very smooth but almost unnatural dart from side to side, quickly closing in on Zolt. Realizing that his fire attacks weren't enough to strike the man, Zolt started to generate electricity from his hands and directed it at the figure as it was coming forward.

But he was too slow as the figure suddenly ducked up from behind Zolt and took hold of his wrist to redirect the path lightening he was bending up into the ceiling. The electricity bounced and thrashed around in between the structure of the stage up above to the floor below. The man clutched his hands around Zolt's neck and forced him to his knees.

Shinju took in each moment as it was occurring and was overwhelmed by the fleeting pace it was all happening at. The mysterious man then took his free hand with his fingers extended in a strange form and placed his hand over Zolt's forehead with his thumb placed in between his eyes. He was gasping as if he was desperately searching for air like he was drowning.

This weird moment lasted for what seemed like ages until the lightening Zolt was bending suddenly faded into fire and eventually nothing. He then collapsed to the floor as if the mysterious man had drained all the life out of him. The figure stepped back from Zolt as if to give him some space to regain himself. Zolt then gathered up some strength to sit himself up and take a swing at the man, expecting to produce fire along with his strike. But he didn't bend anything and his efforts reduced themselves to nothing but a punch in the air.

The audience gasped at this as if Zolt didn't have the ability to generate any fire from his breath like any firebender could, but Shinju wasn't as easily convinced as the crowd. She believed that the man had only exhausted Zolt in some way and that his bending wasn't completely gone.

But it seemed like Zolt knew something wasn't right as he got himself on all fours and looked up at the man desperately, "What… what did you do to me?"

"Your firebending is gone, forever."

The audience gave out less of a gasp and started to radiate a relatively quite jumble of chatter over whether they believed it or not. The crowd seemed to be echoing the thoughts that were going through Shinju's mind. Zolt was left crying on the ground over his newly incomplete identity. It wasn't hard to see that the man was devastated about losing a part of who he was as a person, something that was a part of him since birth. What the mysterious man was doing was something worse than murder.

He continued to give his speech to the crowd while Shinju and the other benders reeled in the horror they were in, "The era of bending is over! A new era of equality has begun!"

The audience broke into the greatest eruption of cheering that they had yet all night. The uniformed Equalist came back to the line and untied the waterbender that was next to Lightening Bolt Zolt before. It was too painful to see a fellow waterbender being kicked to his execution. Even if these men were supposed criminals, like Shinju thought before, this seemed to be a fate worse than death.

Each performance seemed to be slower and more painful then the one before. The waterbender didn't even put up a fight and Shinju didn't know if it was because he had no water to bend or because he thought it would be a hopeless effort anyways. He struggled nonetheless to break free from the man's hold and squirmed within his grasp.

The waterbender let out a deafening moan when the process for him was complete that was almost some sort of frightening cry. The Equalist then came for the earthbender next to the boy who looked at both of the two left after him with the most desolate plea for help written on his expression. The two teenagers were just as desperate as he was and had no way to help the earthbender whatsoever.

The boy then turned to look at Shinju. She was hoping he had some more words to relieve them from the situation they were in, but he just stared at her awe struck from fear. Maybe he was expecting for some solace in her from the distress as well.

The earthbender was definitely not fighting back out of hopelessness because he was surrounded by rock but didn't bother to try to bend any of it. He more or less was giving himself up. His body, though, wasn't as willing and he jerked and twitched just as much, if not more then the other victims.

The earthbender's bending was gone and one of the Equalists now walked toward the two remaining. He came up behind the boy to retrieve him for his turn and Shinju decided she had to do something. She flopped onto her side and kicked the Equalist as hard as she could out from under his feet. He fell to the ground but this only bought the boy so much more time. Another Equalist came over and kicked Shinju in the face while she was still down.

"HEY! Don't kick her!" the boy thrashed around in protest but the Equalist then just struck him with their fist and proceeded to untie the boy and shoved him toward the executor.

The figure dropped his previous victim and slowly turned around to face the boy who was nervously shifting around in place. It then seemed like he was trying to reason with the masked man in a casual fashion, "Uhh… hello Amon… sir, I think there's been a big misunderstanding."

The figure didn't show much response to his plea and started to leisurely walk towards the boy. Shinju's heart was hammering itself against her chest and if she had one wish, she would use it to save the boy rather than bid her own way out of this situation. She also thought of all the times she had prayed she was a nonbender like her brother to fit in at school, but now realized how stupid that was of her.

Suddenly, a huge bang followed by an explosion, blasted itself over in the far back corner of the warehouse. Steam then started to flood the building and engulfed the crowd in massive clouds of white. The audience was screaming and they were now the ones consumed in fear as they were stampeding for an exit. The masked man on the other hand took the time to assess and realize that he shouldn't finish off his demonstration on the boy. Shinju squirmed around in the floor to try and find where the man had disappeared to in the smoke and steam.

She could barely see anything out in front of her and searched frantically around her limited range of motion for the boy or anyone who might help or harm her. The vapor started to take up the oxygen around her and Shinju began to cough and choke from the burning condensation. She didn't know how to bend the water out of her lungs and she couldn't even try with her arms still bound to her side.

As she started to just relax on the floor to conserve as much energy as she could before passing out, two pairs of feet ran past her eyes at ground level. One of them stopped in the direction they were going and turned around to head back toward Shinju. She felt someone untying her but they were doing it much more gently than the Equalists had before and Shinju let her guard down.

The boy picked her up off the ground and another comparable yet older boy came over to help crutch Shinju out of the warehouse. Once outside, her lungs were able to clear but she still wobbled as her and the boys made their way over to a very high ladder that made its way to the ground. The younger boy helped Shinju achieve a firm grip and then they all started to descend in a single file.

She kept climbing down the ladder with adrenaline rushing through her body until she looked up to see the two boys had stopped above. There was a clang and then pure pain added itself to Shinju's adrenaline in a throbbing combination which forced he to let go of the metal and fall the rest of the way to the ground below. She was able to open her eyes to see a man flying at her from above with two electric rods.

She let out a reflex of a scream and scrambled to roll over to the side in avoidance of the man's blow to the ground. The boys leaped up off the ground and caught themselves ready to fight. The older one started to attack the man with firebending but was quickly cut down by the electric rods. Then the younger one ripped large blocks of earth from the ground and chucked them towards the Equalist. His attacks were easily dodged by the man who then started to charge at the earthbender. The boy then raised a wall in front of him to try and stop the man who effortlessly jumped over his barricade and stunned him till he passed out.

Shinju felt like a coward for playing dead and not trying to fight at all. But there was no water for her to fight with and if the two boys couldn't beat the man, she was certain there was no chance of her winning the battle.

The firebender boy was able to pick himself back up and went to defend his friend. He was able to survive a little while longer until he was knocked out once again as the man jabbed the rods into his chest while the boy was backed up against the wall of the warehouse.

They both now lay on the ground without moving a muscle and Shinju tried to imitate the same level of stillness to not let the man know she was still consciousness. Although he thought none of them could hear him, she heard what he had to say to his victims, "You benders need to understand, there's no place in the world for you anymore."

Once he finished his statement, a girder of earth jutted out of the ground and threw the man against the steel wall of the warehouse so hard it left a dent and crushed the electric pack he wore on his back for his weapons. The earthbender boy was still lying unconscious in the exact same place and Shinju knew she didn't do it. The man then struggled to look up into the alleyway at his attacker.

Shinju followed his gaze to see a tall, muscular girl standing in the light and held the stance of a warrior at the ready. She added her rebuttal to his argument saying, "I wouldn't count us out just yet."

The girl then lifter her fingers to her mouth to let out a loud whistle to call for someone and then yelled out the name of that someone, "Naga!"

In response, a large white beast came bounding around the side of the building and headed down the alleyway. The girl ran over to Shinju and helped her up off the ground and onto the beast as it came over. Equalists began to emerge from the warehouse and ran towards them. The girl helped up the firebender from the ground and then estimated that there wasn't enough space on the saddle or time available to get the earthbender seated properly. She got on top of the beast herself and directed it towards the boy to pick him up by the mouth and carry him off that way.

He gave a scream and a very frightened expression when he saw the giant animal racing towards him, but it was quite humorous compared to what Shinju had seen written on his face earlier. The boy bounced around held in the mouth of the beast and pleaded to ride on top with the others as they ran out of the alley and onto the main street escaping the danger.


	8. The Avatar and Friends

Chapter 8-

The girl rode the animal south back towards the main peninsula of the city, over the bridge, and to the center where Republic City Park was located. Shinju felt bad for the boy who was forced to ride in the mouth of the creature, but he was able to make all the way to the park in one piece. They stopped by a fountain and the beast let go of the boy, letting him plummet to the ground as it lifter its paws on the edge to stick its face in the water and start gulping it down.

All of the passengers also collapsed to the ground in a release of tension and fear. Shinju lay completely flat on the ground and finally realized a pain throbbing at her forehead and in between her eyes. She lifted her hand to the ache, but once she touched it, it began to sting even more. Quickly taking her hand away, she noticed the deep crimson dripping down her fingers and got up to look at her reflection in the water.

Her fears were confirmed when she saw a large gash cutting her diagonally across the nose and her left eye seemed to have a scratch on it which made it as red as the tear next to it. Shinju felt faint as more and more blood dripped into the fountain and contaminated it so that the animal stopped drinking the water to come over to her and started to lick her wound. Although it stung, Shinju knew that the creature was offering an act of care by licking the dry blood away.

"Shoo, Naga! You'll only infect it!" the tall girl batted the beast away and came toward Shinju. She motioned for her to sit on the edge of the fountain and then bended some water from the fountain to cover her hand with it like a glove. The cool water felt better on her forehead but it still hurt and was probably still getting infected from the pollutants that were in the water like Shinju remembered the professor saying before.

After making the connection that the girl who was bending water right in front of her was the same girl who used earthbending to hit the Equalist before, Shinju realized she was in the presence of the Avatar. She immediately sank to the ground and bowed before the girl's feet in respect. The Avatar picked Shinju up off the ground and sat her back up on the edge of the fountain, "No one needs to bow to me when they're this badly injured, but thank you for the sentiment."

But the Avatar then frowned as she continued to clean away the lesion. It seemed to be deeper then she expected. The firebender saw this and tore off part of his coat jacket. He soaked it in water and tied it around her head covering the wound.

Shinju was touched by the kindness and compassion the strangers were showing her. It seemed to overshadow all of the insincerity she had experienced in this city in the past week. Especially to receive so much attention from such a renowned figure as the Avatar.

"So what's your name?" the firebender asked after he finished fashioning the bandage.

"Shinju," she couldn't help but blush to herself over how handsome he was.

"Nice to meet you, Shinju. My name is Mako. This is my brother, Bolin, and our friend Korra," he introduced the earthbender boy and the Avatar.

Korra finally allowed Shinju to standup. She bowed her head to all of them, "I thank you all for saving me. I am in great debt to all of you."

Korra put her hand on Shinju's shoulder and reassured her one more time, "Don't worry about it. I was just doing my duty and these two knuckleheads happened to stumble along."

"Hey!" Mako's sense of humor wasn't completely in tune to Korra's sarcasm.

"Haha. Actually, we wouldn't have come along if this smart guy hadn't of gotten himself into trouble," Korra gestured over to the earthbender boy, Bolin.

"Oh, yeah," Mako's face grew very upset and marched over to Bolin and looked him straight in the face like he was a child, "What were you thinking? I told you to stay away from the Triple Threat Triads and you completely disobeyed me! What if I hadn't of found you on time, huh?"

"But Mako, Shady Shin offered me a ton of money and you know how much we need it," Bolin was clearly embarrassed about being scolded in front of the two girls and also ashamed of how angry his brother was with him, "I'm sorry, but like Korra said, if I didn't get in trouble, who knows what would have happened to this girl. Everything happens for a reason, right?"

Mako didn't feel like he could compete with his brother's argument but wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily, "Still, it was such a stupid thing for you to do. I thought you were smarter then that."

Bolin decided to back off and didn't try to argue anymore.

"Come on, let's go home," Mako grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him towards the bay. Shinju then noticed a small, ginger color ferret scuttle from her feet and followed the boys as they walked off. Bolin then looked back at Shinju and waved her goodnight, "Bye Shinju! It was nice to meet you… officially this time!"

Shinju a small wave as the boys started to disappear in the distance, "You too!"

The two girls were then left by the fountain with Korra's animal guide, "Well, I'm guessing you would like a ride home?"

"Would you? Thank you so very much, Avatar," Shinju said this with another bow.

"You don't need to bow to me anymore and you can just call me Korra."

"Thank you Ava… I mean… thank you Korra."

Shinju was able to get a better seat on the saddle of the huge animal now that it was just the two of them and Shinju gave Korra the directions to head northeast from where they were in the park. She didn't know exactly where she was going, but once she recognized the trolley tracks from the week before, they were able to follow them all the way to the university.

"So you're a student here?" Korra asked.

"Yeh. My home is in the southern Earth Kingdom, but I'm all the way up here for the time being."

"So you're an earthbender?"

"No, I'm actually a waterbender like my mother, but my father was an earthbender."

"Was you're mom from the Southern Water Tribe? That's where Naga and I are from," she said and Shinju inferred that she was talking about her animal.

"No, she's not from one of the poles. She's a native of the Foggy Swamp Tribe in the Earth Kingdom," Shinju didn't feel any fear of judgment from Korra and accidentally came out with a truth that her and most of her family often lied about.

"Wow, that's so cool. I always wanted to go there someday or meet someone from that tribe," Shinju herself had never even been to the swamp that the Foggy Swamp Tribe reservation was in and had never heard of anyone speak about them with any sort of fascination or respect.

"Maybe I could take you there someday," the invitation slipped right out of Shinju's mouth but she figured the Avatar took it as an empty promise because they were probably never going to see each other again after this.

Circe Hall was exploding with parties and it was echoed by the sea of festivities over the wall of the campus and into the neighborhood of student apartments. Zina had probably either not noticed Shinju was gone for over 24 hours or couldn't have because she too was gone for the past day from the dorms.

"Whoah, it sounds like loads of fun in there. And you get to live that every night? You're so lucky. All I get to do most of the time is sit around and meditate. I'm horrible at it and I hate it," Korra made the remark about her envy for Shinju's living conditions, but she would personally be happy to trade places and meditate all day if she could, "I would stay and party if I could, but I should get back to Councilman Tenzin about Amon."

Shinju jumped off the animal and onto the ground. The creature turned its face to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek for affection. Shinju couldn't help herself from thanking the Avatar again, "I'm sorry Korra, but I must thank you again. I can't possibly express how grateful I am."

"Like I said before. It's no problem. Just doing my Avatar duty. Stay safe, Shinju."

"You too, Korra." Korra had always felt very safe her entire life and was never scared of facing anyone or anything she couldn't defend herself from. But now this threat of someone out there with the ability to permanently take away her bending started to sink in and create a stain of anxiety within her.

Shinju was feeling the same way even though she was finally secured in her dorm room. She plummeted onto her bed in the heaviest exhaustion she had ever experienced in her life. She couldn't remember ever feeling so tired and drained.

When she left home, her fears were only about being homesick and hating being in the city which completely came true. Over the past week, she added her anger towards the people of the city, both the benders and the nonbenders because of their ridiculous feud and now, it was the absolute terror of this Equalists regime that planned on using not just protest, but violence to get what they wanted. A bender free society.

Shinju felt like she could never leave her room again. She lay there, face down in her pillow but quickly got up to retrieve her bag. But her heart sank when she realized that the Equalists had taken her bag, along with her poetry book and her father's pocket watch inside. It was more upsetting losing the watch then her book. Her poetry she kept in her head and could write down again. But the watch was the last physical thing she had left of her father.

She sat down on the bed again and started to cry. It seemed that she hadn't gone a single day in Republic City without crying. She was sick and tired of it. Everyday grew more miserable then the last. And what was worse was that she was now in a place that she never even had the slightest clue would have ever existed. She was in a place where it wasn't safe to be a bender. Any type of bender, even if the Avatar was in the city.


	9. Opening Up

Chapter 9-

As tough as Bolin loved to portray himself to be, he still couldn't help but feel massive anxiety inside after what had happened the other night. He didn't leave the probending arena much and spent a lot of his time when not practicing, sitting up in his apartment and trying to process the events of the rally internally. He wondered if the fear that he felt then was what it must of felt like for his parents when they were mugged.

He also thought a lot about the girl and he felt bad that she had to go through that. When he met her at the train station, it was blatantly obvious how she wasn't from the city and must have been more terrified than he was. The thought of her did seem to provoke a sort of comfort in him though, but different than any girl he had met before and he had met a lot of girls.

Mako could tell that there was something wrong with his brother. He hoped that he wasn't too hard on him when he told him off for getting kidnapped, but it was his instinct that he developed from growing up early into an adult and needed to protect his kid brother.

"Hey Bolin, why aren't you going down to the station like you always do this time of day?" Mako felt he needed to state the obvious. Maybe Bolin actually forgot that's what he did every afternoon.

"Oh… well I just thought I'd stay home today and do a little reading…" Bolin replied as he eyed a book beside the couch and opened it to his face upside down. This didn't convince Mako.

"But you hate reading. Look, I know what I said about keeping away from the Triple Threats and staying out of trouble, but I didn't mean lock yourself away from the world and stay cooped up inside. Why don't you take Pabu out for a walk somewhere?" Mako then added the next part as if he was reading what was going on in Bolin's mind, "Korra told me that that Shinju girl is a student over at the university. Why don't you go see if you can find her and see how she's doing?"

Bolin's head perked up and his brother knew he gotten through to him finally. Without a word, Bolin ran up to his bed to grab the little money that he had and raced down the stairs out of their apartment. Mako felt so much better to see his brother happier and got his own things together to go to work.

Even though it was a long walk to the other side of the city, Bolin didn't use his money for the trolley and planned on saving it to take Shinju out for a tea.

Shinju herself had not left the campus of the university after the events of the rally and was suffering from a caffeine withdrawal for the past couple of days. She only left her room to go to class and hadn't spoken to anyone in class or in the dorms. There was still no sign of Zina and Shinju was starting to wonder if she had left for some reason but all her stuff was still in her room.

She bought a new journal to start rewriting her poems in it and even wrote some new ones that heavily contained the theme of fear.

Bolin reached the university's campus and was awe struck at how clean and open everything was compared to the city. He too felt like he was stepping between two worlds like Shinju did on her first day.

Now, he knew her name was Shinju and that she was on this campus somewhere but he had no clue were to start looking. The campus seemed to be twice the size of the city park and it was impossible to find anyone there without knowing their exact coordinates.

He came to the main registrar's building and walked up to the main desk inside. The secretary at the counter didn't hold much approval for his poor looking appearance and knew he couldn't afford to be a student there. Bolin walked up to her while still bewildered by the lavish inside of the building to notice her judging stare and asked his question with full expectation of an answer, "Could you tell me where a student named Shinju lives? She should be like a freshman and fairly young. Brown hair, yay high."

He held his hand up to his neck to illustrate her approximate height, but the secretary looked at him in astonishment. Shocked that he thought she knew every single student out of thousands personally and even more surprised that he would assume she would give the personal information as to where a student lived to a random stranger who clearly had just waltzed off the streets of Republic City.

Bolin finally started to realize her expression right before she answered him, "Young sir, we do not give out such confidential information about our students to just anyone without their permission. And just a first name and a very vague description is not enough to identify one student out of many."

"Oh… well… thank you, ma'am," Bolin was discouraged but then an idea came to him in his head, "But would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the bathroom please?"

The woman gave a sigh before giving him an answer, "Just down that hall on your right."

"Thank you ma'am and have a wonderful day," Bolin said this with a suspicious smile before running off towards the bathrooms, but stopping just behind the corner and looked back at the secretary at her desk.

He could sense the earth in the hall opposite to where he was and gave a hard enough kick in the ground to create a loud disruption in that direction. The secretary jumped out of her seat in a panic and ran towards the noise and left the desk vacant.

Bolin then ran over to the desk himself and started to open random file drawers, looking for some list of names. He finally opened one up that was filled with names starting with S and managed to find four Shinjus. There was only one labeled as a freshman and was certain that was his way to go. Under her file, it said Circe Hall #419 under residency and he started to repeat the name to himself in efforts to not forget it. Hearing more footsteps down the hall, Bolin quickly put the file back and made a break for the door.

Now that he at least had a destination, Bolin needed to look for some sort of map and found a directory not far from the registrar's building. He took a while scanning the map and was almost discouraged enough to stop looking until he finally found Circe in the top right hand corner, "Bingo!"

As he made his way to the corner of the campus, many girls started to recognize him as the famous probending player and he was constantly stopped for autographs and standard admiration that he had grown used to running into everywhere he went.

He made sure to genuinely cater to every fan as they came but he was still determined to make it to Shinju's dorm as quickly as he could. After deciding to take more discrete walkways, Bolin made it to the small residence hall beside the wall of the university and slipped inside after catching the door behind another girl. He signed one last autograph on her schoolbook that the girl would probably cherish forever and proceeded up the four flights of stairs.

Bolin was a little winded from the climb and wondered how anyone could do that everyday as he walked down the hall to room #419. He took a deep breath to get himself into his charming character and rapped on the door.

Shinju was sitting at her desk, consumed in her schoolwork and jumped out of her chair from the knock. The smallest sounds seemed to startle her lately and she never expected anyone to visit her. Without an honest clue who was at the door, she answered it with caution.

Bolin's voice boomed as he stuck his face out in front of Shinju to announce himself to her, "Hello there, Shinju! It's me, Bo-"

"AHH!" Shinju slammed in the door in his face out of alarmed surprise. She didn't anticipate such a dramatic greeting. Her posttraumatic stress from the other night was not healthy by any means. Now realizing that it was not the masked man that wanted to take away her bending who was at her door, Shinju opened it up again to see the boy on the floor, rubbing his nose.

"Oh no! I am so so sorry!" She clambered down to help him up off the ground.

"No. No, it's fine. I should have known better. I've been just as jumpy over the past couple of days," he said smiling at Shinju as she helped him stand up, "That's why I came over here, to see how you were doing."

Shinju had never had a boy who was not her brother care about her that much. Forget having a boy come over to where she lived as a sign of compassion. It was new territory for her, but she managed to tap into her waterbender instincts and just go with the flow, "Please, come inside."

Bolin came into her dorm room and looked around at her place. It was small but it seemed really nice and came with an education along with it, "This is a nice get up you got going on here, schoolgirl."

Shinju thought it was sort of annoying but cute at the same time that he kept playing along with the nickname, "Thanks. It's really nothing much but it's a place to sleep and study and it's basically the only place in this city I can call mine."

Bolin stopped gazing the room and turned around to look at her, "So you wanna go get a tea with me or do you have class?"

Shinju didn't have a class to go to but she was still nervous about leaving the campus. She looked at him though and started to feel a sort of security about him that she remembered feeling while they were in that terrifying situation together. She wrestled in her mind over what to do until she realized how this was an opportunity she had never had before. The chance to make a friend who didn't judge her because she was a waterbender whose mother was from the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Heck, this boy hardly knew anything about her yet he was offering his friendship out to her for the taking. Shinju had never met anyone like that before either at home or in Republic City besides the Avatar and the firebender boy as well.

Despite the dangers that she knew lingered in the city, Shinju felt like it was time to start opening her eyes and see what could happen for the better if she took a gamble every once in a while. This boy seemed to be the one who just needed to give her the push she needed. And besides, it was just going out for a tea, but it was a small way to start facing the things that scared her so she could grow more in life.

Bolin was starting to get concerned over how long it was taking her to answer what he thought was a simple question, "Uhh… Shinju? Are you still in there?"

She brought herself out of her brief meditation and back into reality when she saw his hand waving up and down in front of her face, "What?... Oh… sorry. Yeh, I don't have anymore classes today. Come on. I know a good teashop not too far from here."

Shinju suddenly burst into a fit of life and quickly grabbed her alternative bag and Bolin's hand and rushed out the door. Bolin was flustered by her sudden mood swing, but happy that she took him up on his offer. The two exited Circe Hall and made their way off campus and towards Shinju's regular teashop. It was hard though not to feel nervous as she passed the scene where she was attacked the other night, but she just kept herself a little closer to Bolin for protection.

They made it to the shop where the line was not so long, but not so little either in the middle of that afternoon. When they got to the front of the line, Shinju noticed Bolin rustle through his pockets to fish out whatever yuan coins he could. He had just enough money to ordered two small jasmine teas to for them. Shinju felt bad that he spent most of his money because she had enough for them each to have a large of they wanted with a pasty on the side. She had also never had jasmine tea before and would have preferred her usual green, but taking into consideration her newly made choice to take new experiences, what made drinking new teas any different.

Bolin ended up picking the same table she sat at the other night. Even though it was light out and Bolin was with her, Shinju still felt her anxiety creeping up on her. She sat down and tried not to look as paranoid as she really felt, but her efforts were a fail as Bolin could sense it anyways, "So, how have you been since the other night?"

"Oh… well… just trying to keep my mind busy studying," Bolin wasn't buying her attempt to sound okay, but understood how she could still feel nervous, "What about you?"

"Just continuing to practice," he said this flexing his muscles, "Mako, Korra, and I made it to the probending championship, but the only problem is we don't have the money to enter the tournament. That's why I took that job offer by the Triple Threat Triad for the money they offered me. I know it was a stupid move, but I'm not perfect and do stupid things sometimes. So, even though it's not guaranteed we have a spot, that's no reason to stop working."

"Probending?... Oh yeh, isn't that that boxing like sport but with bending?"

Bolin was shocked to have met someone who didn't know what probending was, "You mean you don't know what probending is?"

"Well we certainly don't play it back home and we don't own a radio either so we can't listen to it."

"Strange… well even if I don't play in the championship, I gotta get you in to see a match. Probending is like my entire life."

"Haha, okay. Maybe sometime. But, do you go to school?"

"No. Mako and I are too old for the public schools here and Mako works to help make cash. I always kinda wished I could go to a place like Republic City University though."

Shinju couldn't help but be jealous, "Well don't feel too bad about that. School isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"What are you talking about? The university looks like so much fun! Living a nonstop party with a lil' studying on the side and when you're done, people will be begging to hire you if they know you've gone to Republic City University!" Bolin's naïve description of what life was like at the university was exactly what Shinju was told by her sister and everyone back home. Maybe that's how it was for some people, but it certainly wasn't for her.

"Yeh, there are parties, but they don't really interest me," she lied and tried to act cool and not give away that she actually really wanted to go to parties, but was never invited.

"Wow, really? Huh. Well, do you at least like studying?"

"I mean yeh, I like learning and studying about the world and everything there possibly is to learn, but I just feel like I've been doing it my entire life. There are other things I really wanna do."

"Oh, yeh. Like what?" Bolin seemed very intrigued on an answer.

"Well, like… I've always wanted to master waterbending. I wish-"

"Hold on. Wait, what? You're a waterbender?" he asked as he was eyeing the light green dress she had on, "I thought you were an earthbender. Why does it seem every single girl these days doesn't wanna wear the right color and make it less confusing for us guys, huh?"

Shinju wasn't exactly sure is she had said the wrong thing and hoped he could forgive her, "I'm sorry. It's just that I'm from the Earth Kingdom and most of my clothes are green so I fit in at home."

"No. No, I didn't mean that in a bad way. It's just funny to me because when I first met Korra, she just told me she was an earthbender when she was all suited up Water Tribe style and I should have remembered that and not been so stupid to assume these things again. But the Earth Kingdom is still awesome. Where in the Earth Kingdom?"

"In the southern mountain range. A small farming village called Anshon."

"Never heard of it, but nice, nice. I've really never been anywhere outside of Republic City. It must be nice to travel so far."

Bolin was making so many wrong assumptions in this conversation, "Well… I don't mean to criticize your home, but I'm really not to happy about being here."

"No offense taken. I've never had the experience, but I can see how being far away from home could be hard. And how being in Republic City right now is crazy with the anti-bending revolution. But what I don't get is if your sick of studying, would rather be mastering waterbending, and don't like being in Republic City, then why don't you just leave?"

When Bolin laid it out like that, he made it sound so simple. But Shinju couldn't see it that way. Not with all of the complicated sentiments tied into it, "It was always my father's dream for me to go to a university and he worked for me to get to this point ever since the day I was born. He died knowing I was going to attend school here at Republic City University."

Bolin's face dropped and he related to the pain she was feeling, "Oh… I can see how difficult that must be. Mako and I lost our parents too."

Shinju now felt like a jerk for feeling bad about herself because she could never imagine loosing her mother too, "Oh, no. That's so much more terrible than me. I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't worry about it. You've also lost your home in a way and it must stink being so homesick and also to be put in this hard situation. And losing a parent hurts all the same, whether it's one or both. I guess the good thing for me is I lost them both at the same time and don't have to go through that pain again."

Shinju was also surprised at how much the boy was opening up to her on such a deep level. If this was what making friends was like, hanging out and telling them everything, she was loved it.

After talking for a good hour about anything and everything there was to talk about, the two noticed how the sun was starting to set. They were both a little too nervous to stay out after dark and decided it was time to get going. Before they left the shop, Bolin eyed the pastries on display be the register in a sort of despair, "I wish I could get Korra something for saving me, but I'm all out of money."

Without hesitation, Shinju decided to sponsor his act of selflessness, "Here."

She put five yuans in his hand, "I can't take your money."

"It's a gift from both of us for saving us both. You thought up the gift and I provided the cash. Equal contribution."

Bolin then accepted the money with a smile and bought a good-sized chocolate-vanilla cupcake with cream cheese frosting and raspberries on top. The cashier wrapped it inside a small plastic bag and tied it off with a pretty yellow ribbon. Content with their gift, Bolin and Shinju left the teashop and he walked her back to Circe Hall. There were rose bushes surrounding the base of the building with its flowers fully in bloom. Shinju went over to one of the bushes and despite the professor's warning about bending on the campus grounds, used one of her few tricks that her mother had taught her that they used all the time doing chores on the farm.

She picked out a flower and used one hand to hold it and the other to bend the water inside of the stem and slice it from the rest of the bush. Shinju then gave the flower to Bolin, "I could give this to you as my own personal thank you for saving me, but I feel like I might think of something better in the future, so why don't you give this to Korra for me."

"Sure, but you don't have to get me anything for saving you. A new friend is always a cherishing gift itself."

The newly founded friends said goodbye and Shinju returned to her room. When she went to put her bag on her desk, she started to hear a weeping noise coming through the wall. Shinju walked through the bathroom and knocked on the door into Zina's room.

She was sitting on her bed and crying alone to herself until she heard the rapping on the door and saw Shinju in front of her. She gave a displeased frown and started to wipe her eyes as if she could instantly make it seem like nothing was wrong.

Shinju thought that she must be weeping because Zeno had broken up with her or something, but she could recognize in her eyes that it was something more serious, "Zina what's wrong?"

"Nothing that concerns you," she was sharp in her response and looked away from Shinju, but she wasn't going to walk away from someone who was hurt that badly.

"Zina please, tell me what's wrong."

"Why do you care?"

"Because I care when someone is in pain."

Zina gave a deep sigh as Shinju sat next to her on the bed, "You're not gonna believe me."

The way she said this scared Shinju, but she tired to act as calm as possible, "Try me."

"My dad," the tears started to flood her eyes uncontrollably, "My dad was kidnapped and…"

"Is he missing?"

"No!" she snapped at Shinju but then started to cry even more, "I'm sorry… I'm sorry."

"It's hokay."

Zina tried to press on through her tears, "You're not going to believe me, but my dad was kidnapped and we found him. That's why I've been gone for the past couple of days, but when we found him, they took his firebending away."

**Now this is my longest chapter so far. I was gonna try and split it in half but I didn't feel like I could do so evenly or without ruining the flow of the story.**

**Sorry for taking a while to update too. I kinda had this thing called finals going on for the past couple days but now I'm all done! So excited to be going home soon and hopefully I don't have too much of a life this summer that I don't have time to write =p**

**Thanks for the reviews and continuing to read!**

**Enjoy!**


	10. Mrs Qiana's Gown

Chapter 10–

It was very strange to see Zina in such a depressing mood all the time now. Shinju could have complained to Zina about how at least her father was still alive even if his bending was gone, but she didn't. What good would it do to make her feel like shit? It wouldn't bring her own father back.

Shinju was feeling a little better knowing that there was a small group of people in the city that cared about her. She hadn't seen Bolin since the other day when they went out to get tea, but the confidence in herself that had grown was still there. Her fear of the Equalists had not disappeared though and continued to haunt her.

Shinju had gotten up early on a weekend morning to start on some studying. It felt like all she did was study, but it was also really the only thing she felt like there was to do to keep from being bored. Her head was buried into a large textbook on the physics of firebending until she felt compelled to take a brake to gaze up at the snow covered mountains out her window.

She had achieved a very serene and tranquil state of mind as she continued to stare at the mountains until Bolin's face suddenly and unexpectedly came into the picture. Shinju screamed and fell backwards in her chair. She banged her head on the hard wood floor, but it didn't compare to the pain from the other night when she was kicked in the face.

Bolin quickly climbed through the window to help her up, "I'm so so so sorry!"

"Oh, don't be. That's payback from the other day when I slammed the door in your face," Shinju said as she got up, rubbing the back of her head, "How did you just climb a four story building?"

"I just earthbended myself up. There was no one I could follow into the building and I was kinda too lazy to climb up the stairs," he said this with a guilty smile, "So, it's the weekend and you don't have any classes today, correct?"

"Correct," Shinju was hoping she was correct to guess that he wanted to hang out with her.

"Well how would you like to be my arm candy to a gala being thrown in Korra's honor at city hall?" Bolin stopped to think over his previous word choices and frantically tried to clarify, "Well… I mean I'm not saying I refer to you as an accessory. You are normal human being… but an exceptionally pretty human being…"

Shinju decided to put Bolin out of his misery and reassure him that he hadn't offended her with a small laugh and said, "It's okay, I get what you meant. That's so sweet of you to invite me, but the only thing is I have something to wear to a formal event back home, but I didn't bring it with me. Now I feel like I should have anyways just in case something like this happened."

Shinju was shifting through her wardrobe in hopes of stumbling upon something without any luck, "Oh you don't have to worry about that. I don't even have anything yet, but Mako's new girlfriend is loaded and said she'd take care of it. She got invited to the party and then she invited Mako and Mako invited me and now I'm inviting you!"

Shinju was surprised that Mako was dating someone who wasn't Korra. She had a strong feeling from the other night that there was something between the two of them. And as much as she wanted to go to the gala, Shinju didn't want to take Bolin away from her as a possible date, "Who is Korra going with?"

"She told me it was best if she went alone with Councilman Tenzin and his family. Korra also said that she really wants you to come!"

"Really?" Shinju was over flattered by the invitation and surprised yet happy that her new friends continued to follow up, "Okay, I'd love to go then. When is it?"

"Tonight!"

"What?"

"Don't worry. Mako said to go meet him at the arena and then we'd head right off to go shopping," Bolin started to push Shinju towards the door and she reached for her bag and key before they made it out into the hall. They left the campus and this time headed toward the trolley where Shinju offered to pay to get all the way across the city as soon as possible.

"So why are we meeting at the probending arena?" Shinju wondered why they were going to what seemed like a random location to her on the other side of the city.

"Mako and I live in a small apartment in the attic. We have a deal set up with the owner who gives us a discount for playing. Would be nice if he just gave it to us for free, but beggars can't be choosers."

Shinju had never been downtown towards the bay side of the city. The streets were filled with small shops and restaurants and there were more people in the street than cars compared to neighborhoods by the university. Although the skyscrapers blocked the view directly above you, looking to the west Shinju could see out into the open skies above the ocean.

There was a trolley stop right in front of the arena. Like the temple in the center of the university's campus, the stadium was encrusted in gold but seemed twice as large. Shinju wondered why Bolin and his brother just didn't chip off the precious mineral to sell off for money. No one would notice a tiny fraction of it gone in comparison to the entire building.

The two went inside and up ladder in the corner of the building. When they finally reached the top Shinju found herself in a loft of a room with huge windows that looked out over every direction from the ocean to the mountains. Mako was sitting on the couch in the corner with his arm around a strikingly beautiful girl.

When Bolin and Shinju came into his view, Mako quickly got up off the couch and tied to act casual as if nothing was just happening while he left the girl still sitting on the couch looking confused. Bolin and Shinju had seen though and were not convinced by the cool face he tried to put on while he welcomed Shinju, "Hi Shinju and welcome to what we call home."

"You've clearly already met Mako and this is his new girlfriend, Asami."

The girl from the couch walked over to shake Shinju's hand, "Such a pleasure to meet you. I heard about how you were caught up in that dreadful Equalist rally with Bolin. It must have been dreadful," Asami was one of those girls who you judged at first to be a real priss but actually seemed to be very sweet.

"Yeh. I'm not gonna lie to you, it was the most terrifying experience I've ever had in my life. Luckily Avatar Korra and Bolin and Mako were brave enough to help me escape."

"Well they are very tough guys," Asami looked at Mako and gave him a wink with a smile, "I haven't been able to meet Avatar Korra yet, but I have no doubt that she's as fearless as she sounds. So, are you excited for the gala tonight?"

"I'm super excited! Thank you so much for extending your invitation to me."

"It's no problem. I figured if I was going to bring Mako as my date, it wouldn't be fair to leave his brother hanging and not have a pretty lady by his side for the evening also."

Shinju blushed at the fact that such an attractive girl like Asami would regard her as pretty as well and that she implied Bolin as her date. Shinju had never been on any sort of date before and didn't even go to her school's graduating formal ball last year. She was very thrilled yet very anxious about the evening's events.

"Welp, should we head out and start to do a little shopping!" Bolin was bouncing on the balls of his feet eagerly, telling the group that he wanted to get a move on.

"Haha, okay Bolin. We'll get going," Asami took Mako's hand and the couple headed for the stairs as Bolin grabbed Shinju's arm and rushed her downstairs in anticipation. When the group got out to the street, there was a rich red satomobile detailed in gold waiting for them on the curb.

Shinju's family owned a pretty old pickup truck like satomobile but she had never traveled in one so luxurious and no one in Anshon owned anything close to it. Still acting like a kid on his way to a candy store, Bolin jumped into the vehicle after the driver held the door open for him. Although Mako and Shinju were just as excited to ride in the fancy satomobile, they showed more restraint in keeping their emotions under control and followed him inside.

The seats were furnished with leather and there was a mini fridge with refreshments as well. The satomobile then headed back to the center of the city and towards downtown. The shops became fancier and fancier as they rolled through the streets. The driver stopped in front of a place with very formal suits for men in the window. Shinju remembered her father and her Shai probably owned only one of these outfits and wore it once or twice a year at most.

The driver then came to open the door and Bolin rushed out of the satomobile and ahead of the group in childish excitement. The salesman in the store looked over Bolin with an expression of disapproval but when Asami came into the shop, that all changed.

"Good afternoon Miss Sato! What pleasure do I have of helping you with today? Does your father need a new suit already?" Shinju then just made the connection between Asami's last name and the reason for her wealthy status.

"Nope, he's all good. I was wondering if you could find my friend Bolin here something for Avatar Korra's gala tonight?"

"Certainly, Miss Sato. Is that all you need? What about for this gentleman here?" the tailor gestured toward Mako.

"No thank you, sir. The suit you made for me the other night is perfect," Mako insisted Asami didn't spend anymore money on him.

"As you wish Master Mako."

"Just put the cost on the family tab and I'll pay for it this week. Come on, Shinju. We'll leave the boys to their suits while we go to my favorite dress boutique in the city. We'll be back soon." Asami and Shinju headed outside and back into the satomobile. The boutique was not far away and only a few blocks from the tailor shop. The front window featured beautiful gowns made of satin and silk.

Inside the shop were even more dresses on manikins and hanging along the walls on hangers. Shinju scanned the row of hangers at all of the bright and rich colors that could make up the rainbow. She stopped skimming the dresses when one gown made of a crème white caught her eye.

"Miss Sato! How lovely to see you today," an old woman came from the back of the store. It seemed that many vendors knew Asami and her family very well, "Are you looking for a gown for the Avatar's gala tonight?"

"No thank you, Mrs. Qiana. I'm looking for a dress for my new friend here, Shinju."

"Absolutely. Now do you have a nation preference?"

"Well Bolin will be wearing green, but he told me you are a waterbender, Shinju?"

"Yeh, but I actually grew up in the Earth Kingdom," Shinju then looked back at the white dress and started to walk over to it, "But white would go with anything, right?"

"Well… that dress is very old and out of style, though. I don't think you'd want that," Mrs. Qiana tried to convince Shinju's interest out of the gown.

"How old?"

"A month."

Shinju literally jump out of surprise by her answer and couldn't wrap her mind around this idea of something being fashionably old. She continued to make her way over to the dress regardless of what Mrs. Qiana told her and checked out the price. The dress was discounted from 900 yuans to 400, which still seemed like a fortune to her.

"Well if it's the gown Shinju wants, then it's the gown she gets. And you're right about the white, it goes with anything," Asami backed Shinju up, "Go try it on."

Shinju was still thrown back by the reduced price but even if she couldn't purchase the dress, she wanted to at least try it on. She went to the back on took off her own casual dress. As she slipped it over her face, Shinju wasn't careful enough bumped her hand over her scar, which started to sting. The healer at the school told her it should have cleared up by now but that wasn't the case.

She pulled the luxurious white gown over herself more carefully. It fit perfectly except for the fact that Shinju was too short and the extra fabric made it very difficult to walk. Picking up the skirt of the dress, she walked back out to Asami and Mrs. Qiana.

"Oh, Shinju it's gorgeous!" Asami offered her positive opinion.

"It's 400 yuans, though. I can't let you spend that much on me."

"Don't worry about that! Mako's suit actually cost 700 yuans and Bolin's will probably be the same. Just don't tell them that. Now the only thing I would add on though is some sort of color. Hmm… what if you had some green and blue ribbon braided into the top and wrapped around the skirt so you could match Bolin and also be true to yourself!"

"That's very creative of you, Asami. You should go into fashion design some day, Miss Sato. You might even make more than your father does with his satomobiles!" Mrs. Qiana joked.

"I like it!" Shinju approved. Mrs. Qiana worked at a very, very fast pace with hemming the gown and then adding in the ribbon. It also probably helped that she owned a sewing machine that Shinju's mother would have loved to have when it came to making and altering all of the family's clothing.

Shinju tried it on one last time to make sure it fit with the gold heels Asami had picked out from the boutique next door to accent the gold that bordered the ribbon. The colors added so much character to the gown and helped Shinju's matching blue-green eyes stand out. The magnitude of the Sato's wealth grew in Shinju's mind as Asami told Mrs. Quinn to also put her dress on the family tab. She figured it was probably dangerous to carry that much money around anyways.

The chauffeured satomobile was still waiting for them on the curb after they had been in the store for a good 2 hours and the two girls then went back down the street to pick up the brothers. They were already waiting outside and looked rather bored.

"Man, where were you guys?" Mako asked.

"We were waiting here for over and hour. Good thing they have complementary food and drinks here or we would have left by ourselves a long time ago," Bolin sat next to Shinju in the car while Mako settled next to Asami, "So, what did you get?"

Bolin reached for Shinju's bag, but Asami grabbed it right before he could get to it, "No, no, no. You have to wait till tonight to see it. Give me yours bag just to make sure the two match each other."

"What? It's not like we're getting married or something!" Bolin whined while Shinju blushed. He pouted and gave Asami the bag with his suit in it and both her and Mako looked inside each bag and smiled

"Yup, they're a match. You two will look perfect together!"

The satomobile went back the way it came to the probening arena. When it got there, Mako and Bolin let themselves out and Shinju tried to follow until Asami held her back, "You'll come with me and I can do your hair and makeup. They'll get ready here and a satomobile will come pick them up later."

"Okay!" Shinju was really glad about this because she didn't want to ask Zina for any of her makeup and she didn't even know how to put it on herself, she always had Intan put it on when she needed to wear it.

The boys said goodbye to the girls for now and made their way to the entrance of the arena. Before he got inside, Bolin noticed something scurrying by the edge of the water. Pabu was pawing in the bay at fish, trying to catch one until Bolin came and picked him up.

"Pabu, how many times do I have to tell you not to go outside and lock yourself out when we're go-" Bolin stopped talking to the fire ferret when his eye was caught my something shinning in the water. He reached into the bay himself not for the fish, but for a small blue and white stone. It didn't look like anything precious or valuable, but it still glimmered in an enchanting way that Bolin was attracted to it.

"Bolin! Come on! What are you doing?" Mako yelled at his brother from the door into the arena.

"Jut getting Pabu! He got out again!" Bolin put the stone in his pocket and then ran back to Mako. When he got up to their apartment, Bolin rummaged through his drawers for one of his old probending uniforms and took a black lace from the bindings. He then took the small, blue stone and drilled a small hole that was just big enough for the lace to thread through.

**Oh wow I am sorry! This is unacceptable of me. A month to update? And I wasn't even that socially busy! I hope some of you are still out there to read this and I will definitely continue. I'm so far behind from the show but that just means I'll have plenty to write about =p**


	11. Pre Game

Chapter 11-

The luxury satomobile headed back into the city and towards the base of the mountains. Shinju and Asami went through downtown, past city hall, the park, and Central City Station. The apartments disappeared and the streets started to become lined with mansions in their place but after driving a little farther, even the mansions disappeared and the Sato estate came into view.

To call it a mansion was an understatement. Shinju categorized it as a palace. It was built on many levels and seemed to climb up with the mountain. The satomobile entered through a secured gate but it still took them 2 minutes to reach the front entrance.

Once inside, Shinju continued to be awestruck by the grand staircase. It filled the entire room and was engraved in gold with detailed decorations on the sides. There was so much to take it was overwhelming. A butler suddenly startled Shinju because she didn't notice him from being so deeply hypnotized, "May I take your things, madam?"

Shinju didn't know what he wanted with a dress, but her kneejerk reaction was to give it to him anyways, "Oh, thank you sir!"

"Now I would give you a grand tour of the place, but seeing as we're short on time, I'll just show you to a shower room were you can wash up," Asami led Shinju up the stairs to the second floor and to the left, down a hallway. She opened a door to a room twice the size of Shinju and Zina's dorm rooms combined with a tall window on the farthest wall and a large shower in the opposite corner, "I'm going to wash up in my bathroom so ask a butler to take you to my room when you're done and we'll work on makeup."

"Sounds good! Thank you again, Asami," Shinju gave a gentle bow.

"No problem! Okay, I'll see you soon."

Shinju couldn't stop wasting time by staring at everything around her but she had to kick herself and remember they were crunched for time. She started running the shower and then stripped down completely. It felt so good to be bathing in hot water because usually when Shinju took a shower in the dorms, all the warm water was already used up.

She was then distracted by all of the different shampoos and soaps that lined the wall of the shower and couldn't completely tell which ones were for men and which were for women. Shinju just decided to go with anything in a pink container because that probably meant that product was for women.

Her shower ended up finishing quickly because she was so excited about the night's events. Shinju got out of the shower and reached for the towel and looked where she had left her clothes but they weren't there. Instead was white robe with the Future Industries logo embroidered on it and a pair of red, silk slippers. It felt awkward to walk around a strange mansion wearing nothing but a robe and it was an experience Shinju couldn't say she had had before until now.

A butler was waiting at attention right outside the door and gave Shinju a bow as she exited the bathroom, "Follow me, miss."

The butler took her up to the third floor and towards the back of the mansion to Asami's bedroom. Shinju noticed her door was larger and stood out compared to the others in the hallway as the butler knocked, "Miss Sato, Miss Shinju is ready for you."

"Come on in!" Asami's voice came muffled through the thick door. The butler opened the door and Shinju had realized a new level of lavishness and luxury. The ceiling reached higher than her eye could see and vanished into darkness. The panoramic view of the mountains from the towering windows put the sight from Shinju's dorm room to shame. A large bed with a veil canopy hanging above it sat in the corner and soaring bookcases lined the walls, filled with what seemed like every book known to man.

Asami was sitting in front of a mirror brushing her hair when they came in but got up to meet them when they entered, "Thank you, Devadas!"

"My pleasure, Miss Sato," Devadas then left the room.

"So, Shinju, I picked out some makeup that will look amazing on you with your gown," Asami lead Shinju over to the mirror where palettes of blush and eye shadow and lip color in greens, blues, whites as well as natural tones. They were next to a larger set with every hue imaginable.

Shinju could only imagine how her sister would react if she was in the situation she was in of being surrounded by such indulgence. Asami actually reminded Shinju a lot of her sister, being a girly girl but also staying grounded and down to earth. That probably wasn't as hard for Intan though because they didn't live in as much luxury and because she was an earthbender but Asami sill didn't seem to let all the money she had control her.

Shinju tied her hair back so that it wouldn't get in Asami's way while she was putting on the makeup. She took a brush for the skin toned blush and went to apply it on Shinju's face until she was stopped by the notice of her scar across her nose. Asami was nervous she would offend Shinju by asking but she felt the need to, "Is it safe for me to put makeup over this? I don't want to infect it."

"Oh… no, it's actually really old. It should be fine," Shinju lied and tried not to flinch from the stinging as Asami continued to brush over the scar. Once she was done with the base coat of makeup, Asami added a light pink on Shinju's cheeks for blush, a white below a blended blue and green on her eyelids, and a dark red for the lips.

Shinju looked at her reflection in the mirror when she was done and was very pleased with what she saw. It made her wonder if maybe she should try and put makeup on a little more often.

"Alright, we have fifteen minutes till Mako and Bolin get here. Your dress is in my bathroom so put it on quickly," Asami's bathroom was almost as extravagant as her room but it didn't surprise Shinju all that much anymore. Her dress was hanging on a hook on the wall and looked like it had been steamed to take out any wrinkles it may have had.

Shinju always loved and treasured the dresses that her mother had made for her, but it was close to impossible not to feel like royalty in this gown. Asami had done such a wonderful job with her makeup that it fine-tuned her appearance flawlessly. Shinju felt beautiful.

"Shinju, are you ready yet?" Asami's voice broke her hypnosis on herself.

"Uh… yeh, just one second." Shinju took her hair tie on her wrist and put her brown hair half way up like she usually had it. She walked out of the bathroom and saw what Asami was wearing. Her gown was a deep red with a similar shape to Shinju's and a large gold pendant for a necklace. It made Shinju feel a little bare without any jewelry, "Asami, you look amazing!"

"Why thank you. I've already seen you before in your dress, but you look even more stunning with your makeup. Sorry I couldn't cover up the scar though."

"Oh, it's okay. I don't even notice it half the time anymore. Your pendant is beautiful too!"

"Oh… thank you," Asami's face seemed to drop, "It was my mother's. She passed away when I was young."

Shinju felt bad but couldn't believe she had met yet another person who had lost a parent," I'm sorry. I lost my father last year."

"Oh no! _I'm_ so sorry."

"It's okay."

A bit of an awkward silence fell between the two girls until the butler, Devadas interrupted through the door, "Miss Sato, Masters Mako and Bolin have arrived."

"Oh, great! We're coming right now," Asami snapped out of her frown, "Well no sense frowning now. Our parents would want us to enjoy tonight, right?"

"Right," Shinju broke into a smile as well.

The girls headed back to the main staircase and down three floors to the main entrance. Mako and Bolin were standing there just as or even more dumbfounded as Shinju had been earlier by the extravagance. Both were wearing a very formal and handsome black suite. To highlight their element, Mako was still wearing his usual red scarf and Bolin wore a dark sage green vest underneath that Shinju's dress certainly matched with.

The boys' attention was then shifted from the architecture to the sight that was making its way down the stairs. They held their bewildered expressions as Asami and Shinju came down to meet them. Mako was able to break out of his trance, "Wow you both look stunning."

"Why thank you," Asami walked over to Mako and took his arm to hold as he offered it to her.

Bolin was usually very smooth and calm around girls, but he couldn't help but blush furiously as Shinju came closer to him. She couldn't say she had any less butterflies in her stomach either, "You look very dapper in your new suit, Bolin."

"You do too... No! I didn't mean you look dapper…," once Bolin started stumbling over his words, he couldn't stop, "No! Wait! I didn't mean you don't look dapper… I didn't mean you look like a boy! You look like a girl! A very, very dapper girl… wait, what's the girl word for dapper again?"

"You mean pretty, Bro," Mako couldn't stand to see his brother struggle any longer.

"Right! Pretty! But more than pretty… beautiful," Shinju was now really blushing, her cheeks were hot. Bolin then suddenly remembered and went into his pocket to search for something and came up with the blue-stone necklace that he made earlier, "It's not a diamond, but I thought it was it was really pretty and that you might like it 'cause it's blue and you're a waterbender and all.

Shinju couldn't believe her eyes, "These are the same kind of stones in the rivers and streams back home in Anshon!"

"Really? I found it in the bay outside the arena."

"I wonder how it traveled all the way here?"

"All on its own after many years by flowing with the river out to the ocean and then eventually washing up in Yue Bay," Asami explained the most plausible journey.

"Wow. Thank you, Bolin. It certainly means more than a diamond," Shinju held her hair up as Bolin put it on for her.

"Alright, now I wish we had more time, but we have to leave to pick up my father at the factory and then get to gala. Let's go everyone," Asami led the way with Mako still glued to her side out to an even more luxurious satomobile than the one they had driven in earlier that afternoon. They all piled inside with still plenty room to spare.

**So over the past month, I got a summer internship/job which takes up most of my free time and I know that's no excuse but also I was going to make this like one big 10 page chapter but then I decided I should just cut it in half to what I already have to finally update. So I hope I still have some readers out there and most of all I hope you enjoy! =]**


	12. The Gala

Chapter 12-

It was so lovely for Shinju to be riding through the city at night while it was all aglow, especially because she wasn't tied up or being kidnapped this time. The satomobile went south and into the more industrial part of Republic City that was filled with mills and factories. In the heart of all this, the satomobile stopped at the largest factory of them all with a large logo of a gear in front.

A large figure emerged from the front door and made sure it was locked after closing it behind him. He then made his way towards the satomobile and crawled inside.

Mr. Sato seemed fairly old due to the wrinkles in his face and the streaks of gray in his hair. All the same, he appeared to be a caring and gentle soul. He was wearing a deep red formal suit that matched his daughter's dress.

"Daddy, you've already met Mako, but let me introduce you to his younger brother Bolin and their friend, Shinju. Shinju, Bolin, my father, Hiroshi Sato." It was easy to sense the pride and respect Asami had for her father in her voice.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir," Shinju gave a small bow of her head, "It's nothing fancy or new, but my family loves how reliable your pickup truck model satomobile is and how much of a help it is on our farm. It's an incredible machine, sir."

"Why thank you. Tell me, where are you from?" Mr. Sato seemed genuinely interested.

"The forest valley mountain ranges of the southern Earth Kingdom. In a small farming village called Anshon."

"I see. Has your family ever considered investing in our new line of farming tractor satomobiles? It's a machine designed to do all of you're plowing and harvesting just by riding through the fields. They're available in many different sizes to fit any family's farm and budget."

"Wow! That's amazing! We've never really needed much machinery though because my sister and my father are earthbenders and my mother and I are waterbenders so we've done most of our farming that way. But because my father passed away and my sister and I are away from school, my mother and my brother might need to think about getting one."

"Is your brother not a bender?"

"Yeh, he's a non-bender."

"Then it would be very wise to purchase a tractor. Especially the one specifically designed for irrigation. I've heard of terrible droughts and dust storms in the eastern part of the Earth Kingdom. It would be very unfortunate if they headed your way. I don't think waterbending would be cut out to reverse the effects of such a disaster."

"You might be right," Shinju replied but she didn't want to think about her family's farm possibly going under at that moment.

"Mr. Sato, I would just like to say how beautiful, big, amazing, luxurious, big, fancy, grand, big and elegant your mansion is!" Bolin needed to express how impressed he was by Mr. Sato's wealth, "Did I mention big?"

"I'm glad you love it!" Mr. Sato chuckled, "Are you also excited to be back in the runnings for the pro-bending championship as well?"

"What? No, Mako must have not told you, we don't have the money to compete."

"Well Mako must have not told you that I was going to pay for your entrance fee."

"WHAT?!" Bolin's jaw seemed to fall to the floor of the satomobile.

"Mako and I didn't tell him because we wanted you to, Daddy."

"Oh… well now I guess I've told you," Mr. Sato chuckled again.

"Wow! Thank you Papa Sato!" Bolin jumped across the car and gave Hiroshi a great bear hug just as the satomobile came to a stop.

"Thank you for the affection, my dear boy, but if you'd be as so kind, could you get off of me so I could get out?"

"Whoops! Sorry, Mr. Sato, sir. After you," Bolin bowed his head and gestured for the door of the satomobile.

The rest followed after the man. Bolin offered his hand to Shinju to help her out and then mimicked Mako's lead and gave her his arm to hold on to like a gentleman should. Shinju accepted and would need it for guidance as she kept her sight looking up at her first up close view of City Hall.

It was yet another grand building in Republic City's collection of notable landmarks. The roof was a large emerald green dome, which was supported by tall rectangular windows underneath. The doors were duplicates in image of the windows and were just as tall. Something that Shinju knew had definitely not been there before were the two soaring blue tapestries with Korra's image on each side of the door.

The group proceeded inside and Shinju felt more out of place now then she ever had at the university. Everyone there was dressed with such high class and she could sense the years of proper etiquette that all these people possessed. She then looked at Bolin the same way she did the night of the rally looking for reassurance, but he looked even more uncomfortable than she did. Shinju decided then to offer some words of support, "I've been to a few fancy functions in my life, but nothing to this extent. I don't completely know what to do either, but we're dressed the part so we got that down. Now all we need to do is follow Asami's lead and act like she does and, hey, we did come here to enjoy ourselves did we not?"

"Exactly! I just wish I knew more people here. But I'm glad you came along with me so I didn't feel like an awkward third wheel on Mako and Asami."

Shinju blushed and chuckled, "No problem. The pleasure is all mine. And Korra should be coming soon too. I mean this event is all about her."

All of the sudden, the hall began to fill with a poised roll of applause.

"Hey! There she is!" Bolin pointed Korra out over by the front doors. She was wearing a deep blue, traditional Water Tribe dress with her hair more down than before. She was standing next to a tall, baldheaded man with an arrow tattoo on his forehead. Shinju knew that was Councilman Tenzin, Avatar Aang's son. She had always seen pictures of the famed airbender, but was honored to be in the same room as him. Being a history nerd, this was the ultimate equivalent of seeing any famous pro-bending player.

Bolin dragged Shinju out of her trance and started to run off toward Mako and Asami who were chatting with some noblemen. He then grabbed Mako by the arm that Asami wasn't holding onto and turned him around, pointing at Korra, "Mako, look! Korra's here!"

"Korra?" a sort of light came into Mako's eyes as he said her name, "Come on, Asami, you have to meet Korra."

"It's what I've been waiting for all night! Look she's over there, talking to my father."

The two pairs made their way through the crowd and towards where Korra and Mr. Sato where standing. When they reached them, Shinju noticed another man standing next to Korra in a formal suit that featured blue and white tones like Korra's dress. She made the assumption then that he was from the Water Tribe as well.

Shinju also noticed that the expression on Korra's face seemed insecure and upset. Very different then from the last time she saw her.

Bolin let go of Shinju and ran up to meet the Avatar, "Hey, Korra!"

Mr. Sato turned around to see his daughter coming and made the introduction, "This is my daughter, Asami."

"It's lovely to meet you! Mako told me so much about you."

Asami seemed to sincerely enjoy the pleasure of meeting the Avatar, but Korra appeared to feel quite the opposite, "Really? Because he hasn't mentioned you at all… How did you two meet?"

"Asami crashed into him on her moped," Bolin answered by being a wise guy.

"What? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. More than fine! Mr. Sato agreed to sponsor our team. We're back in the tournament!"

"Isn't that great!" Bolin shared the same excitement he did back in the satomobile.

Korra's mood was still the polar opposite of everyone else, "Yeh… Terrific…"

A woman suited in a metal armor police uniform caught the attention of the Water Tribe man as she walked by, "Chief Bei Fong! I believe you and Avatar Korra have already met."

She was the first one Shinju had seen at the gala that was as lively as Korra, "Just because the city is throwing you this big to do, don't think you're something special. You've done absolutely nothing to deserve this."

Shinju was taken aback that someone could say something so insulting to anyone, never mind the Avatar. After saying what she needed to say, the Chief of Police turned the other direction and walked away.

"I will see you later, Avatar Korra. I have other people to chat with, but don't go leaving the party so early, now," the Water Tribe man left and disappeared into the crowd of people.

"Who was that?" Bolin's curiosity blinded him from the fact that Korra still looked absolutely miserable.

"That was Councilman Tarrlok. He's the one trying to get me to join his taskforce to hunt Amon."

"Why haven't you?" Mako didn't seem to have a sense for other people's emotions either.

"Because I've been busy with my Airbending training with Tenzin."

"So that's why you haven't been at practice lately," Bolin reminded Korra of the added stress on her life.

"Well you'll have to get back in the gym to gear up for the tournament now!" Asami tried to bring some cheer into the conversation but Korra just fell silent again.

Shinju figured it was up to her to state the obvious because neither of the boys had yet, "Korra, you look beautiful! Your dress is amazing."

"So do you! I'm sorry I never could heal your scar though."

"It's alright. It's my new conversation starter and it makes me pretty look tough now," Korra smiled and gave a small laugh, which is what Shinju's goal was.

"Come on you guys, I want you to meet Tenzin"

Councilman Tenzin had just come out of the bathroom with his small son who made a dash for the buffet table. The airbender gave a sigh over his boy's short attention span, but then quickly got over it and noticed Korra and the group coming towards him.

"Tenzin, these are my friends I've been telling you about. This is Shinju, she's a student at Republic City University."

Shinju bowed and expressed the honor it was to meet the councilman, "It is a great privilege to meet you, Councilman."

"Please, just call me Tenzin. I heard you were caught up in that dreadful Equalist rally."

"Yeh. I owe Korra and Mako and Bolin a lot for saving me."

"I'm glad you're safe now," Tenzin gave a gentle smile along with his words.

"This is Mako and Bolin, my probending teammates."

"Hello, sir," Mako greeted him while giving a bow.

"Mr. Tenzin Airbender Councilman, I am humbled to be in your presence. I was over at your house the other day and may I say, it is quite big and beautiful!" Bolin always was giving off a little too much excitement.

"Thank you. But the island isn't all my home. It also belongs to Air Acolytes that live on the island and help keep the traditions of the Air Nomands."

Shinju could see the gears working in Bolin's head, trying to comprehend what the airbender had just said to him, "Whoah… that's deep…"

"And then this is… uh... Asuma?"

"It's nice to see you again, Asami. How is your father doing?"

"Very well, Councilman Tenzin. Thank you for asking."

Korra looked confused and then put her pouty face back on she had before when meeting Asami.

"I've known Asami every since she was a little girl. Her father is a great patron to the council and the city as a whole."

"Ah, Korra! There you are," the Water Tribe man had returned, "I have a couple more people who would… like to meet you."

Korra gave a sigh and then followed him away from her friends.

"Who is that guy?" Shinju was still lost.

"That's councilman Tarrlok. He' the representative from the Northern Water Tribe," Asami answered her.

"Oh wow. Cool," Shinju was still very intrigued by all the new and important people she was meeting.

Bolin felt otherwise, "I don't think I totally trust this Tarrlok dude… OH LOOK! FOOD!" his mind switched like a light onto a completely new concern. Shinju decided to get something to eat with Bolin while Asami and Mako went on socializing with almost everyone at the gala.

Shinju filled her plate with brown rice and royal turkey pork. She had barely eaten all day, plus the food was obviously beyond better than the university's. While Bolin continuously piled his plate with no self-control, Shinju could see Zina behind him in line and almost at the same time, she saw her too. Zina left her place in line and came up to meet her roommate, "Hello, Shinju. How did you manage to get into here? I know you didn't have the money."

"I was invited. Plus, I actually know Avatar Korra."

"How could you possibly know her? You spend all of your time not in class in your room doing nothing."

"No she doesn't! She hangs out with me!" Bolin pulled himself away from the buffet and entered the conversation.

"Well Shinju, you never told me you had a boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Right…" Zina was not convinced, "Now seriously, how did you get in here and how did you possibly get a dress from Mrs. Qiana's besides just flat out stealing it?"

"I bought it for her," Asami came back with Mako and confronted Zina.

"Oh… hello Asami. I see you gotten yourself another boy toy and dressed him up like he's your doll. And now I guess you use your daddy's money just to buy yourself friends now too."

It was evident now that there was some sort of history between Zina and Asami and it wasn't a friendly one, "Actually, Asami has been an incredibly nice and generous person and I like her for more than just her money. If it was a question of just wealth, I would have been your friend the first day I met you and I bet you might have a few more friends than just your few self-obsessed princesses, Zina."

They were a harsh choice of words but Shinju had been holding those feelings in for a long time that they were bound to escape sometime soon. Zina looked like she was close to tears as she walked away and Shnju knew that going back to the dorm wouldn't be fun either. She started to feel not so great about herself but then became distracted from her feelings by the small eruption of a crowd and flashing lights in front of a large staircase at the end of the hall.

Korra was standing on the steps with the Councilman Tarrlok guy and a mass of reporters below were shouting different questions simultaneously at her, it was impossible to actually hear their questions. Even from far away, Shinju could see the nervousness and insecurity on her face. The confusion died a little and reporters started asking their individual questions. One man asked about Amon's ability to take bending away permanently and then it was an obvious struggle for Korra to answer in front of such a large crowd.

Another reporter then questioned Korra why she wasn't making taking down Amon her main priority. He barely left her any room to answer before accusing her of "running away" from the fight. The questions started to roll into each other again with no space in-between. It was overwhelming Korra.

Shinju could hear one reporter in particular ask, "Are you afraid of Amon?" "I'M NOT AFRAID OF ANYBODY!" that question set Korra over the edge, "If the city needs me, then… I'll join Tarrlok's taskforce and help fight Amon."

"There's your headline, folks!" the councilman came to put his arm around Korra to declare the news. The lights then really started flashing so the news people made sure they captured the image in front of them.

Shinju looked up at Bolin who gave her a worried look back and then exchanged the same expression with his brother. It was clear that Korra was just as worried, if not more, and in the most uncomfortable position she's ever been in her life.

Shinju sensed the fear in her friend and wanted nothing more than to go and comfort her but she knew that was not an option in this formal setting. But at that moment, Shinju made a vow to stick by Korra's side and help her in any way possible after everything had done for her. As strong and brave as Korra is, even the Avatar needs help sometimes.

**hey! so I'm back at school and I have some downtime when I create it and hopefully can get back to writing on a regular basis. I wrote the first part of this chapter in the middle of the summer and the finished the rest of today so if it feels choppy or a little confusing, I am very, very sorry but enjoy nonetheless! =]**


	13. Drop Out

Chapter 13-

After the gala, the crew of friends seemed to separate from each other for a while. Korra was now committed to her promise to join Tarrlok's task force and the stories of her Equalist raids made the front page almost every other day. Mako and Bolin continued to train for the probending championship even without their third teammate while Mako and Asami started to frequently go out on more and more dates. Shinju started to become so buried in schoolwork and didn't have any spare time to check up with her friends.

When Mako was out with Asami, Bolin was confined to boredom. He and his brother always had been attached to the hip for their entire lives and Bolin wasn't used to being alone. It was especially hard not having Korra at practice. Mako was reading the newspaper after and saw the Avatar's face on the front cover for the 6th time while Bolin was cleaning up the gym. The earthbender hopelessly asked the question he knew the answer to, "No Korra for practice again?"

His brother answered with a scowl on his face, "Doesn't look like it."

Bolin threw the earth discs he was carrying onto the floor, not caring about the mess he made when he was supposed to be cleaning up. He was too upset about Korra's continued absence and his brother's absence from his life as well. But then he remembered there was another friend missing from his life recently, "Hey, what's Shinju been up to lately?"

Mako had forgotten about Shinju too and didn't have any sort of answer to his brother's question, "I don't know. I haven't seen her since the gala. Have you?"

"No. I think she's been really busy with school. Maybe I'll go to the university and see how she's doing."

"Yeh that would be nice. Even for you seeing as you haven't been out of the apartment much."

Bolin wanted to snap back about how his antisocial behavior was due to the fact that he was out with Asami every night, but he bit his tongue to stop himself, "Okay. Yeh, I'll go do that. Don't go and have to much fun with Asami tonight."

Mako blushed at his brother's comment and then buried his head back in the newspaper to hide it. Bolin packed his things from practice and went to shower and change to go to the university.

Shinju was spending the whole weekend studying for her mid-semester exams. She wanted to go see Korra and her other friends but it just wasn't possible to do that and also get good grades on her tests. The classes at the university were a lot harder than the ones at school back home. All the stress she was feeling really made Shinju second-guess her confidence to not fail out of school.

She just didn't like school at all. Even though they weren't as obnoxious, all of Shinju's professors were just as pompous and stuck up as Professor Proteus, but she couldn't through a temper tantrum and walk out of every single class unless she wanted to drop out of the school.

But at the same time she did want to do just that. None of Shinju's classes were interesting her and being at the university just felt like a huge waste of time. All she wanted to do was go home and work on the farm for the rest of her life. She knew she would be perfectly satisfied doing that.

As tempting as the thought was though, Shinju knew she would feel uncontrollably guilty if she dropped out. Her father worked too hard and invested so much money and effort to make it possible for all of his children to go to a university that it would just do wrong by his memory.

The things that kept Shinju sane while being at school were her new friends, even if she had not seen them in over a week and she was starting to allow herself to let Republic City feel like a second home, but it would in no way replace Anshon in her heart. She kept a calendar right by her bed where she was counting down the days until she left for winter break.

But Shinju tried as hard as she could to keep her mind off of these things this particular weekend and had to put it toward a six scrolls essay on the Harmony Restoration Project for another history class that focused on the founding of the United Republic of Nations. She was already four scrolls in, but she needed to make a trip to the library later to do more research. The paragraph she was on was about to be completed when a rock came flying in through the window. It landed right next to Shinju's ink but thankfully did not hit it. But after she took a sigh of relief, a second rock flew just a little bit farther than the previous one and smashed the ink jar all over the scroll.

Furious, Shinju threw the two rocks out the window. The first one missed but the second rock was followed by an, "Ouch!"

Shinju looked out the window and saw Bolin rubbing the top of his head where she had hit him, "Oh, no! I'm sorry! Do we need to hurt each other every time you come over to see me?" She was extremely happy to see a friend though to take her away from her studying.

"Well, I don't make it very easy to make my presence known. Can I come up?"

"Of course! Hold on a second."

Shinju grabbed her key and rushed downstairs to let Bolin inside the building. When she opened the front door, Bolin greeted her with a huge bear hug, "Shinju! How have you been! I haven't seen you in literally forever!"

Bolin's dramatic greeting surprised Shinju, but appreciated his enthusiastic hello, "I've been good," it was easy to detect the sense of hesitance in her voice, "How have you been?"

"Good, but just absolutely bored lately. Mako is always out with Asami and I'm stuck by myself. And Korra hasn't been around for practice in a couple of days so I figured I'd come see you."

"Aww. Well thank you. I would have come over to see you guys, but I've been pretty busy with school lately," Shinju said this just as she was opening the door to her room. Bolin could now see the piles of books stacked up or laid out on top of her desk and all over her bed. He then noticed the scroll that was covered with ink on the desk as well and the rock next to a tipped over inkbottle. Putting the pieces together, Bolin figured out that he was the cause of this.

"Did I do that?" he pointed to the mess on the desk.

"Oh… well, yes, but don't worry about it. I can…" Shinju couldn't help but add in a sigh, "… write that page out again."

The stress and frustration from school started to boil up her eyes and it was obvious to Bolin now how miserable she felt. He had to reach out, "Hey, is everything okay?"

Shinju hadn't talked to anyone about how she really felt yet and she knew if she kept it in it would only damage her more, "I'm just… under… so much stress…" saying this made the tears start to come. Bolin reached out and pulled her in for a hug and then the tears turned into sobbing, "School is a lot harder than I thought it would be and I'm just terribly homesick and the people here are not friendly and I miss my dad so much and I have nobody here."

Her worries came out in a long run on sentence. Bolin caught her last comment at the end though and called her out on it, "Whoah! What do you mean you don't have anybody here? You have me and Mako and Korra and Asami! You have plenty of people here. Now I don't know about here at the university, but you definitely have people who care about you in Republic City."

"I know. I'm sorry. That came out wrong. I did mean I have no one here at the University. I'm just tired of being here. I hate it here."

Bolin then decided to ask the obvious question, "Well, why don't you just drop out?"

Shinju sat up and repeated out loud what she had been saying to herself all week, "I can't just drop out because my father worked my entire life to get me here today. His dream was for me to go to university. If I dropped out, it would dishonor his memory."

Bolin's line of thinking went on a different pattern though and came up with another important point that Shinju hadn't thought of before, "But wouldn't he be upset to know that you're not happy here? I bet he would be fine with whatever decision you made as long as you were happy."

"I never thought of it that way before."

"He would want you to do whatever you want to do and be great at it! If you don't want to go to school, what else do you want to do with your life?"

"Well, I mean right now, just going home and working on my family's farm sounds nice," Bolin then started to get nervous that Shinju would leave Republic City then and that's not what he wanted, but was saved by her following words, "But I don't have the money to go home right now and I would want to do something else great before I told my mother I just dropped out of the place I've been working my whole life to get to."

"What about your bending? Didn't you say you always wanted to master waterbending?"

"But I don't have the money to get to the North Pole either."

Bolin was then hit with a brilliant plan, "Well what about Korra?! She's mastered waterbending and plus you'd be learning from THE Avatar! It would be like learning from a hundred thousand past masters from her past lives all at the same time!"

"But where would I live? If I drop out then I'm homeless here."

"Hmmm… You could ask Councilman Tenzin if you could live on Air Temple Island because you would be a student of Korra's and if they say no, then you could live with Mako and me."

Shinju was over flattered by the offer, but didn't want everything handed to her if she quit school, " That's too nice of you. If it came down to that, or even if I live on Air Temple Island too, I would find a job to help contribute some kind of rent."

"That's responsible of you," Bolin was then reminded of how Mako has pestered him to find a job for some time now.

Shinju was now thinking everything over carefully in her head. Weighing the pros and the cons and also taking her gut feelings into account as well. The only thing that was keeping her from reconsidering school before were all the feelings of disappointing her father's memory and letting him down for everything he had worked for, but now she seriously took Bolin's point of view into account.

And he was right. If she was not happy there, what was the point of putting herself through something that made her so miserable and be part of an institution that she didn't care for? She didn't feel like she had any place where she belonged at the university, but when she was with her new friends, it didn't feel exactly like home, but it gave her a feeling of belonging that felt just as right.

Intan was the one who flourished at school and Shinju felt wonderful for her sister that she was happy there, but now Shinju realized that she wasn't her sister and that she should go and have her own different adventure to grow and succeed from. She also realized that her father would follow her and watch over her in full support as long as she was happy like Bolin said he would.

Shinju wiped away her tears and sat up strait on the bed. She took a glance at all of her schoolbooks and the ruined essay on the desk. She then saw all of it just disappear in her mind and a wave of relief rushed over her with the thought of just letting it go. That and her previous reasoning helped her to make the final decision, "You know what, I think you're right Bolin. I think Republic City University just isn't the right place for me. Maybe I should try something new and something that I really want to do."

"Really?!" Bolin's face lit up when Shinju announced her decision.

"I'm going to drop out of school and learn waterbending from Korra, which is what I always wanted to do!" Shinju stood up tall to express her newfound confidence.

"That's awesome!... Now how does one drop out of a university exactly? I know I dropped out of primary school when I was little by simply not going anymore."

"Well, if I don't drop out officially and just stop going to classes, my mother's money will just keep going to the university which will be a waste because I'm not learning here. I could probably get back some of the money she already sent for the year and give it to whoever I end up staying with."

"Okay! So off to the main… official… register placey office then?"

"Yes, but first, there is one professor I do want to… 'thank' for teaching me something while I was here," Shinju put a small smirk on her face.

They headed in the direction of the main building for the school of history. On the way, Shinju filled Bolin in on her first and only world history class at the beginning of the semester. When they got to the building, she looked at the directory for Professor Proteus. Shinju found him on the second floor and started to make her way up with Bolin following. His office was at the end of the hall and she saw the door open, meaning he was inside.

The professor was seated at his desk, grading papers using a pen with the ink on the side in a bottle as well. The floor was made out of cement so Bolin gave the ground a small rumble to feel like a small quake. Professor Proteus stopped grading the essays and looked around him for a minute before concluding that nothing was wrong and went back to his work.

Then, even though it was hard for Shinju because she couldn't see the ink, she bended it to splash over just enough that the bottle tipped over and spilled ink all over the papers, most of which the professor had already given failing grades too. Professor Proteus stood up with disgust and also because some of the ink had spilled onto him as well. He went to the cabinet to get a towel to dry himself and then proceeded back to his chair. Right before he started to sit into the chair, Bolin shifted the floor from under the chair so that the professor would miss it and fall onto the floor.

Shinju and Bolin couldn't help from laughing when Professor Proteus' bottom hit the ground, which told the professor that someone out in the hall was the cause of his misfortunes. He got up and bounded for the door and that signaled Shinju and Bolin to run away as fast as they could. They could hear his voice yelling after them as they ran down the hall, but the adrenaline was pumping that their get-a-way was too fast for the heavily opinionated Professor Proteus to catch up and give them a yelling lecture to their face.

Shinju and Bolin ran out the building laughing and breathing hard. Shinju came to the top of a hill and lost her footing, causing her to stumble and roll down the hill like she did when she was little. Deciding it looked fun; Bolin followed her by lying down on his stomach and chased her. Shinju was stopped, still laying in the grass and couldn't get out of the way fast enough so Bolin barreled in and landed right on top of her. There was an awkward moment, but then their laughter continued harder.

The two got up when they finished getting their amusement out of their systems and started to make their way to the administrative building to handle Shinju's official business to leave Republic City University for good.


End file.
